Actress Alyssa Milano said she recently tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies after having a slew of ongoing symptoms but previously testing negative for the virus twice in late March.
In a post on Instagram, the activist called the testing system in the U.S. "flawed," claiming we don't know the real numbers of who's infected and who is not.
"Everything hurt. Loss of smell. It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t keep food in me," Milano wrote on Instagram.
The political activist and actress said she had nearly every coronavirus symptom, but took two virus tests in late March and both come back negative. Milano said she also took a finger prick antibody test after she began feeling better, but that too came back negative.
Milano said after feeling lingering symptoms including vertigo, stomach abnormalities, irregular periods, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, limited short term memory and general malaise, she recently had an antibody test with a blood draw which came back positive.
"I thought I was dying. It felt like I was dying," Milano wrote on Instagram.
Milano went on to say that the virus is not a "hoax" and she pleaded that everyone wash hands, wear a mask and maintain social distancing.
"I will be donating my plasma with hopes that I might save a life," Milano wrote. "I don’t want anyone to feel the way I felt."
The United States had recorded more than 4.9 million cases of COVID-19 as of Friday at 2 p.m. ET, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker, with over 160,000 deaths.
