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Northern Ireland Justice Minister Naomi Long says she was told by doctors that she was likely infected with the coronavirus earlier this year and suffered a “long Covid” in the following months.
The British Medical Journal says that “prolonged Covid” is a term used to describe the disease in people who have recovered from Covid-19 but still report lasting effects of the infection or have had the usual symptoms for much longer than usual. expected.
The Alliance Party leader said she missed the party conference in March because she was taken to the hospital for tests after experiencing chest pains and a high fever.
A CT scan revealed a partially collapsed lung, which told Northern Ireland’s BBC that ‘The View’ had made her “pretty sick” for two weeks.
She said: “What started to worry me was the delay after that, because for the next three or four months I suffered from fatigue, I found shortness of breath and it was really quite difficult to fully recover.”
“When they referred me to the clinic, in terms of having my lungs checked and all the follow-up on that, it was there that they said it was probably a form of Covid that I had and that that would explain the long recovery time, which was consistent. symptomatically with other people who had had prolonged Covid, as it is known. “
She was probably not diagnosed with the virus during her initial hospital stay because she did not have a cough, the minister said.
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Her experience prompted her to urge members of the public to take a test and isolate themselves if they had any symptoms associated with Covid-19.
She said, “Don’t wait until you have all the symptoms because you may never develop all of them.”
“I didn’t know I had been exposed. I didn’t know I had it and I was never tested at the time. But, given the symptoms, they’re pretty sure that’s what it could have been.”
It comes as the public in Northern Ireland faces the public in the face of heightened fines from coronavirus, with notices of fixed fines starting at £ 200.
The list of places where people should cover their faces has also expanded as Stormont ministers try to stop a dramatic spike in Covid cases.
4,674 new cases of the virus have been confirmed in the region in the last week, while 120 people with Covid-19 are being treated in the hospital, 15 of whom are in intensive care, and 11 with ventilators.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has said there was a clear agreement with Northern Ireland that more needs to be done together to combat Covid-19.
Mr Coveney said that yesterday he raised the issue of more funding from London with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis.
He said Lewis has promised that funds should be available for Northern Ireland and Coveney said both jurisdictions must work together to manage the spread of the coronavirus.
Mr. Coveney said that Mr. Lewis has assured him that there is no blockage of Covid-19 funding from the British government to Northern Ireland.
The minister said that while there is a prospect that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is under pressure to release more funds, that is not what he was told during his meeting with the Northern Ireland secretary in Belfast yesterday.
“What you are saying is that the British government has already provided significant funding to the Executive specifically for Covid in Northern Ireland and the response there,” Coveney said.
“I would like to speak to some of the senior politicians in Northern Ireland today to establish exactly what the lock is there because certainly Brandon Lewis, the Secretary of State, was very clear to me yesterday that funding should not be the lock.
“If funding is needed for a Covid response in terms of a public health response in Northern Ireland, London will take it seriously.
“If there is a lockdown based on lack of funding from London to Northern Ireland then we have to address that and Brandon Lewis, who spoke to me yesterday, was happy to address that.”
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