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'This is unlike anything': Actor details coronavirus journey after testing positive

Hollywood actor Daniel Dae Kim has spoken out after testing positive for the coronavirus, saying it was “unlike anything” he’s ever experienced before.

The 51-year-old, who has starred in a string of shows, including Lost, Hawaii Five-O and Always Be My Maybe has been documenting his experience with COVID-19 on his Instagram.

Yesterday, he revealed that he is “now considered virus free” and said he feels lucky to not have required hospitalisation.

Daniel Dae Kim attends Kollaboration Star 2019 at Cafe Club Fais Do-Do on December 07, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.
Daniel Dae Kim has detailed his journey with coronavirus. Photo: Getty Images

“This disease is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced and this past week was no exception. So, the day after my last video, my course of treatment ended,” he said online.

“I was feeling healthier, as I mentioned, and I thought it would be good to just let my immune system take charge the rest of the way. But, maybe I was a bit too confident.

“A day after, I started to feel sluggish, tired. I was still congested and weirdly I lost my sense of smell, which led to a loss of sense of taste.”

“The good news is I never had a fever again, the bad news is I still didn’t feel right,” he admitted.

“Since then, my doctor told me that these symptoms are commonly associated with what’s called post-viral inflammation and it’s part of our body’s natural recovery process.”

For the past few weeks, Kim had been in New York where he was filming a TV show where he was playing a doctor who gets recruited to a hospital to help patients during a flu pandemic.

As the coronavirus began to hit New York, that show, like many others after it, stopped all production so Kim hopped on a plane to Hawaii to be with his family.

He was asymptomatic throughout this whole time but as the flight came into landing he felt a scratchiness in his throat.

Daniel Dae Kim talking about coronavirus wearing a blue shirt
Daniel was in the middle of shooting a show where he was in character as a doctor sent to help patients during a flu pandemic when he got the virus. Photo: Instagram/Daniel Dae Kim

To be safe, when he got home he quarantined himself in a room in his house, however,later that night, he started to feel tightness in his chest, body aches and his temperature started to rise.

The next day he got tested at a drive-through centre which he said was “painful but worth it because of what I found out”.

He started feeling better the day after that and gradually got over the virus, not needing hospitalisation.

“Thankfully for me it wasn’t a case of life or death,” he said.

That was the only time he left his house after returning from New York to Hawaii.

LOST - "The Candidate" - Jack must decide whether or not to trust Locke after he is asked to follow through on a difficult task, on "Lost," TUESDAY, MAY 4 (9:00-10:02 p.m., ET) on the Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Television Network. (Photo by Mario Perez/Walt Disney Television via Getty Images) JEFF FAHEY, MATTHEW FOX (OBSCURED), EVANGELINE LILLY, NAVEEN ANDREWS, JOSH HOLLOWAY, YUNJIN KIM, JORGE GARCIA, DANIEL DAE KIM
Daniel Dae Kim played Jin-Soo Kwon in Lost. Photo: Getty Images

In his latest video, the actor said he’s now considered to be coronavirus-free and went on to urge people not to “hoard medicine” and not to “self-medicate.”

“Through all of this, I’ve seen all sides of human nature and though it has been disheartening the amount of hate and divisiveness I’ve read on social media, I will choose to remember those who took the time to say something kind,” he noted.

When he was first diagnosed with COVID-19, Kim called for

“Despite what certain political leaders want to call it, I don’t consider the place where it’s from as important as the people who are sick and dying,” he shared. “If I did, I would call this thing the ‘New York virus,’ but that would be silly, right? The name calling gets us nowhere.”

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