Tales of survivors: 'Never before had I seen doctors dressed up like aliens'.

BARA, KHYBER: It all started on March 12 with high-grade fever and muscle soreness. OTC fever and pain relievers didn't work. I was feverish the whole night and my body ached all over. Next morning, I went to consult a local clinical pharmacist. He took my temperature. And I had a fever of 104 degrees. Scary!

He prescribed some antibiotic along with the OTC fever reducers. I took the meds and sweated profusely. But I couldn't sweat out the fever. This is when I started having more symptoms, like chest pain, dry cough, and a painful throat. I was feeling awful. My gut instinct told me something was wrong.

On March 14, I went to consult an MBBS doctor in my village. After a thorough physical examination, he concluded that I had a sore throat. The diagnosis was convincing because sore throat normally causes high fever. I knew that because I own a medical store, and have basic information about common ailments.

The doctor changed my antibiotic and asked me to continue pain and fever relievers. The new treatment regimen didn't work either. That night, I started feeling chills. Breathing also became laborious. I was putting all of my energy toward breathing. My brother was alarmed. He rang up the doctor to tell him about my new symptoms.

Tales of survivors: How I became Pakistan's first COVID-19 patient

The doctor told my brother to take me to the Northwest General Hospital in the neighbouring Peshawar district. My family immediately drove me there. I was tested for the regular flu and other viruses. All the tests came back negative. Then they asked me if I had recently travelled outside the country or if I had come in contact with a foreign traveller or with someone sick.

The last time I travelled abroad was in mid-2019 when I drove to Afghanistan on a business trip. And before that I had flown to China in 2017. So, the two visits had happened much before the emergence of the novel coronavirus. I had also met some friends from China and Australia - but that too was two months ago. And both of them were not sick.

My travel history suggested it could be anything but COVID-19, but my symptoms indicated otherwise. Until then, my knowledge of the coronavirus was whatever I had gathered from social media. Medics at Northwest General Hospital suspected I was infected. So, they referred me to the Police Services Hospital, which the provincial government has declared as a referral centre for COVID-19 patients in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

When the ambulance...