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A 33-year-old Italian man is opening up on how he tested positive for the coronavirus despite being in top physical shape and maintaining a strict workout routine.
Andrea Napoli, a lawyer in Rome, said he had no history of respiratory disease. Despite regularly working out – including water-polo training – Napoli developed a cough and fever less than a week after Italy’s premier locked down the entire nation.
Until that day, Napoli said he was following his routine of work, jogging, and swimming. Three days later, he tested positive for COVID-19.
Andrea Napoli taking a selfie in a hotel being used for patients recovering from the coronavirus, in Rome.
(Andrea Napoli via AP)
Initially, Napoli said he was told quarantine at home with the warning that his condition could deteriorate suddenly, and it did. By the next day, he was hospitalized in intensive care, with X-rays confirming he had developed pneumonia.
“Unfortunately, you have to live these things to really understand them totally,” Napoli told The Associated Press. “I am 33 years old, in great health, and I found myself suddenly, in less than a day and a half, in intensive care.”
For most patients, the new coronavirus has caused mild symptoms, such as fever and cough that cleared up in a few weeks. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it could cause more severe illness, including pneumonia