A mum admits she got complacent after she caught coronavirus for a second time.
Fiona Abbott first discovered she had contracted the virus in May when she began to feel exhausted.
The finance officer from Hartsholme, Lincolnshire battled through the illness and then returned to work, Lincolnshire Live reported.
The mum says she has carried on following all the rules and the guidelines such as wearing a mask and social distancing.
It therefore came as a surprise to her when a persistent cough led to her being diagnosed with the virus for a second time.
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She said: “I was more surprised this time around.
"You say you don’t think you will get it twice, so I it was more of ‘oh, ok’."
Fiona, who works at a secondary school, first realised something wasn’t right when she began to feel drained and tired back in May.
She said: “Last time I was absolutely exhausted all the time. I had zero energy whatsoever.”
She added: “I fell ill on the Friday and managed to get a test on the Sunday morning.
“I didn’t have a cough last time, I just felt really, really rubbish.
“I work in a school and at the time, we were in lockdown, but we were still going in and various bits.
“My boss said go and get a test to be sure because you don’t want to be in school and spread it around. That’s what I did.”
The test at came back positive on May 3.
The 46-year-old said: “I was shocked more than anything. Back then you heard a lot about it, but you didn’t know anybody that had it.
“Now there are lots of people that have had it – it’s a lot more common now.
“But certainly back then it was more shock.”
It took her a long time to shake off the bug and to feel like her old self.
She said: “I didn’t feel right for weeks afterwards. I still had to have sleeps and things. I felt really run down.
“It was like when you have had really bad flu and it takes a while to get over it.
"It was a good six weeks afterwards I was really feeling rubbish.”
After returning to work, Fiona admitted that she felt slightly invincible, even joking with colleagues that she couldn’t catch it again.
“I said to colleagues at work ‘I am ok’ and even people have made comments saying ‘you don’t have to worry, you’ve had it,’"she said.
“I felt like I had a magic cloak or something because I had already had it and been fine.
“There’s a lot of people that have had it and sadly passed away so you do feel ‘way, I have beaten it’ and ‘I’ll not get that again’."
Fiona developed a bad cough last Thursday, October 22 and within a day of being tested she discovered that she caught the virus for a second time.
She said: “I felt a bit rubbish at work on Thursday and had to go home. I just had this really, really bad cough.
“I have had a cough since the last time and I didn’t have one when I was ill but developed one afterwards.
“I gave up smoking a few months ago so I thought had a lot to do with it.
"This cough got to the point where I was constantly coughing.
“Because the cough was so bad and I had the conversation at work with friends about getting it twice I thought I would go and get a test.
“I managed to get one online and get one within half an hour.
"Had it been a couple of days and I couldn’t have got one immediately, I would have probably have never have gone.
“It was the spur of the moment and I thought I would double check.
"The result came back within 24 hours.”
Fiona said her second diagnosis has really caught her off guard and she has scrapped plans to see family and friends over half-term.
She said: “I was absolutely numb and in shock.
“I have a busy house. There are five adults that live here. My son, his girlfriend and their little girl, I have a son with severe learning difficulties who is quite vulnerable and there is my husband.
“I think it was that sudden ‘oh my gosh, everybody is now going to have self-isolate, nobody can go to work.
“It was more thinking about the knock-on.”
Fiona said she feels a lot better this time around and should be able to return to work on Tuesday, November 3.
The rest of her household and people who have come in to contact with her should be able to go back three days later.
She is unsure how she caught the virus again – but doesn’t think working in a school was to blame.
She said: “I don’t know what has caused it. The school itself are brilliant – I think I am their first case.
“A lot of schools over the last few weeks have had loads, but I am going to be their first.
"I am a support worker and work in the finance office so I don’t really see the kids that often.
“I don’t really venture out of my office that much. We are a busy house.
"My daughter-in-law works in a care home, my husband works in construction, my other lad works in a gym so I think we have had a lot of exposure.
“It could have come from anywhere I think.”
She also now wants to warn others, especially those who have already had Covid-19, that they too could catch it again.
Fiona said: “I think I’ve probably been complacent but not irresponsible.
“I’ve worn a mask in public, signed up to track and trace, kept my distance from colleagues.
“Knowing I’d already had it I could easily have ignored the signs and then would have infected friends and family over half-term.
“I think people should know that they can get covid more than once and not become complacent like I had.”
Cases of people testing positive for the coronavirus twice has led to fears about how long immunity lasts.
A man in the United States caught the disease for a second time and needed hospital treatment after his lungs could not get enough oxygen into his body.
His case was written about in the Lancet Infectious Diseases which raised questions about how much immunity can be built up to the virus.
