Quoting myself for an update.
Found out last week that my sister’s Aunt* was down with COVID. Learned this morning that she died of it. She was 82. Not that it matters, she’d been in dementia for years.
I took the test and came back negative but was advised by who ever it was that called me that I still most likely had the virus based on the symptoms. One thing she said I was not aware of and I may have misunderstood her. She said that about 10 days after the onset of the virus there is a good chance I would come back negative. I took the test about 15 days into it. After the weird tightness cleared up my chest was building up a lot of mucous, today was the second day on antibiotics and it is clearing up pretty fast. I developed a fever about 14 days after the onset of symptoms which I don’t think it typical. My only symptoms were itching all over my body and a strange tightness in my chest, bothersome but not too bad.
A colleague/friend and her husband think they have it, but haven’t been tested. I said in another thread that I didn’t know anyone else but I forgot my nephew’s godfather had it. He has a chronic lung condition and was put on a ventilator, but was released from the hospital a couple of weeks later.
There are a few people mentioned on the church’s prayer line, but friends and family, not members or regular attenders.
My best friend’s husband (also a good friend) and my husband’s cousin both died of cancer in April. No way of knowing in COVID-19 had any role in their passing.
I have an acquaintance, we serve on an HOA board. Her mother died in a nursing home a couple days ago. The board stopped by together to offer condolences tonight (hugs involved), found out (post hugs) she died of Covid-19. My second close contact.
The virus is inside my mother’s assisted living facility. 13 residents and 3 caregivers positive, an unspecified number of caregivers quarantined at home.
A high school friend who now lives in Jersey City and one of her roommates just got back antibody test results - both positive. A second roommate is still waiting for results. They had some symptoms in February and March, but weren’t sick enough to be hospitalized (or tested).
Thank you. 
Pushing two months after exposure, still having lingering annoying issues that just refuse to be shaken. Cough (though much more infrequent), low O2, out of breath after light exertion, fatigue. I was one of the lucky few that ended up with a rash, and some of it is still there, along my ribs. Hubby is pretty much fully recovered, though he also struggles with exertion. I have an appointment with my PCM in two weeks for an unrelated issue; I anticipate being offered the antibody test, which I’ll likely consent to.
I’ve started job searching in earnest; hubby anticipates being called back to the office in the next two weeks or so. They’ll do a rotating schedule, with 20% of the office being physically there at a time. I’ve made him a stack of masks in preparation.
A report came out yesterday that a handful of sailors on the Roosevelt who had the virus have tested positive after recovery, two negative tests, and appropriate quarantine. That, quite frankly, terrifies me. I want absolutely no part of a round two of this thing.
Nobody does, but at least in the United States we all know what is coming.
I wish you and your spouse the best of luck. Can I ask some semi-personal questions? Does the rash hurt? Does it itch? Is it like acne? The few photos that have floated across my newsfeed showing rashes are mostly of children who are developing this unexpected and horrific variety of Kawasaki Disease.
I hope that your respiratory systems both recover fully. As a lifelong asthmatic, I truly get what it is to be suffocating silently. Be safe.
AIUI the consensus as of now is that people who test positive after recovery haven’t been reinfected and don’t get sick again. They just have remnants in their bodies. It could be a risk to other people but less likely a risk to them. Doesn’t mean they could not get reinfected, but that’s not what’s thought to explain those positives (also some people in South Korea, etc).
A second wave of the virus in general, which the previous response seems to refer to, is a real concern but a largely separate issue. Only a small % of people in the US (or anywhere) have been exposed (highest antibody test positive rate I’ve heard was NY at around 20%, I live right next to it, but subject to possible sample bias and uncertain false positive rate of particular test used, AFAIK). ‘Second wave’ assumes the pandemic largely dies out over the summer then lots more, mainly previously uninfected, people get it next flu season. It would add on if recovered people also got it again but that’s a pretty small % of the population.
I was exposed according to antibody test (particular brand claims 100% specificity, no false positives in manufacturer’s test, according to them). I now assume the few weeks of persistent but moderate ‘flu like’ symptoms I had in March was COVID. Only mild fever on two separate days, but disconcerting breathing symptoms for a few weeks. In fact, my breathing is not 100% now, although I don’t feel weak and the symptoms get better not worse if I exercise. When I sit around it’s more likely I still feel some constriction, and it still interferes with my sleep sometimes.
The likelihood though not certainty AIUI is that a reinfection is less likely and/or would have less severe consequences for a given person if they have antibodies all else equal. That’s not the 100% worst case, but the 100% worst case is generally that we’re doomed.
Thank you. Happy to answer any personal questions about any of the symptoms (they were many, and varied, some weird, and all annoying). The rash was not painful, and not all of it was itchy. From about the middle of my throat to the top of my breasts was just a big, flat, red splotch that looked like a sunburn and itched like the dickens. Then it transitioned to the area underneath my breasts and along the ribs from side to side (never went all the way around back) which looked much more acne-like; the underlying skin was normal-colored, but the whole area is covered in small, flesh-colored bumps that never looked or felt pop-able- more like a heat rash. The rash along the ribs is still there; the rash on the throat/chest is significantly diminished but there are two stubborn spots that refuse to fully heal and itch even more now than they did when the whole area was inflamed. I take an antihistamine to try to control the worst of it.
Ouch.
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A friend had both of his parents test positive, the father first and then a week later his mother. They died within 10 days of each other.
Two colleagues tested positive but recovered fully within a couple of weeks.
I was really sick in mid-March after returning from a trip to London (the outbreak there was shutting parts of the city down, and forced an earlier return). Symptoms started with diarrhea when I got back that lasted about four days, then a fever for 9 days (101-102.5, tylenol would mostly knock it down but it was a constant chills and sweats) a few days of intense headaches, and a rash around my lower trunk down past my waist). I was very fatigued throughout. I suspected COVID but tests were by doctor order only then, and the diarrhea and rash were not known symptoms at that time. I had no respiratory issues (no cough, shortness of breath) but after recovery (7 days after the fever left for good) I tried my normal cardio routine and it kicked my butt (I’ve laid off exercise for several weeks before and coming back to it has never been that tough). Because testing policy was restricted to having the key symptoms AND travelling to a high risk area (then it certain areas of China and Italy, Iran) OR being in close proximity to a person with a known infection, my doctor would not order a test. I self quarantined in a guest room with an en-suite bathroom to keep away from my wife and kids until I was better.
Last week I took the antibody test and it came back positive. My wife then scheduled for this week to see if she had it, too (she had minor common cold symptoms at the same time, nothing worse). The kids never got sick, nor did others travelling with us.
FWIW it’s worth, here’s the test I took: QuestDiagnostics.com/home/Covid-19/HCP/antibody/fact-sheet2 Abbott Labs is advertising that in testing it was 99.9% unlikley to report a false positive.
Update, he is fine now, but it was a serious case.
Today I found out a coworker had been diagnosed in March and was released from the hospital in early April. She is middle-aged and her oxygen levels dropped low enough to threaten her life. She’s “fine” now, but still suffers from shortness of breath.
Two coworkers have been infected, but I work at a large office and don’t know most of the people there.
The nursing home where my wife’s grandmother had been - 3/4 of the residents and a whole bunch of staff all tested positive for Covid-19, including my wife’s grandmother. She died last week, but she was already in late-stage Alzheimer’s, and it looks like that got her before the virus did.
(She never developed any recognizable Covid-19 symptoms: no fever, no difficulty breathing, etc. But she’d lost the ability to chew several months ago, and shortly after she went into the hospital, she seemed to lose the ability to swallow, and her living will specifically said: no feeding tube. So that was it.)
Posted elsewhere. Repeated here, the thread of record:
Just found out that my nephew’s wife and my one of my son’s best childhood friends both had it (on in DC, one in New Orleans). They both got very sick for several weeks but both recovered fully.
Update on this - cleaning lady recovered completely without having to go to the hospital. Her daughter got sick enough to go to the hospital, and ended up on a ventilator for a couple of days, but has recovered enough to come home.
Still no to both questions.