"I just want you to be aware that our testing system is flawed."
Alyssa Milano revealed she tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies after initial tests came back negative.
Taking to her Instagram on Wednesday, the "Charmed" alumna went into detail about the distressing ordeal with the coronavirus, as she was "confused" by struggling with COVID-19 symptoms, but being told she did not have the infectious disease.
"This was me on April 2nd after being sick for 2 weeks," she wrote alongside a photo of herself wearing a breathing apparatus. "I had never been this kind of sick. Everything hurt. It felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest. I couldn’t breathe."
Even with displaying "every Covid symptom," the 47-year-old actress tested negative for the coronavirus twice at the end of March and took a COVID-19 antibody test around the same time, which also proved negative.
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For the next four months, Milano lived with "lingering symptoms like, vertigo, stomach abnormalities, irregular periods, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, zero short term memory, and general malaise."
She said she went to have another test where blood is drawn as opposed to "the finger prick" variety.
"I am POSITIVE for covid antibodies," she wrote. "I had Covid19. I just want you to be aware that our testing system is flawed and we don't know the real numbers."
"I also want you to know, this illness is not a hoax," Milano added. "I thought I was dying. It felt like I was dying."
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View StoryShe said she plans on donating her plasma to help others in the fight against the pandemic and ended the message by offering advice to her fans.
"Please wash your hands and wear a mask and social distance," Milano wrote. "I don't want anyone to feel the way I felt."
In the United States alone, there have been a reported 4.8 million cases of COVID-19, with 158,000 deaths.
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