Northern Ireland Justice Minister Naomi Long says doctors have told her she was probably infected with coronavirus earlier this year and suffered long Covid in the months that followed.<\/p>\n
The Alliance Party leader said she missed the party\u2019s conference in March because she was taken to hospital for tests after experiencing chest pains and a high temperature.<\/p>\n
A CT scan revealed a partially collapsed lung, which she told BBC Northern Ireland\u2019s The View program had made her \u201cquite ill\u201d for two weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did start to worry me was the lag after that, because for the next three to four months I suffered from exhaustion, I found it difficult to breathe and it was really quite challenging to get the full recovery,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was referred back to the clinic, in terms of having my lungs checked and all the follow-up on that, it was there that they said it had probably been a form of Covid that I had and that that would explain the very long recovery time which was consistent symptomatically with other people who had had long Covid, as it\u2019s referred to.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was likely not diagnosed with the virus during her initial time in hospital as she did not have a cough, the minister said.<\/p>\n
Her experience made her urge members of the public to undergo a test and isolate if they have any symptoms associated with Covid-19.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t wait until you have all the symptoms because you might never develop all of them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was not aware that I had been exposed. I wasn\u2019t aware that I had it and I was never tested for it at the time. But they\u2019re pretty sure given the symptoms that that\u2019s what it might have been.\u201d<\/p>\n
It comes as the Northern Ireland public face public face beefed-up coronavirus fines, with fixed penalty notices starting at \u00a3200 (\u20ac219).<\/p>\n
The list of locations where people must wear a face covering has also been extended as Stormont ministers try to stem a dramatic surge of Covid cases.<\/p>\n
Some 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 cared for in hospital, 15 of whom are in intensive care, with 11 on ventilators.<\/p>\n