5 people explain what getting the coronavirus felt like for them and how they recovered

Herman was recovering from a bout of the flu when he started to feel shortness of breath and knew something was wrong.

The following day, he was able to get tested due to a previously scheduled doctor's appointment and learned he had COVID-19.

Herman said his biggest symptom was shortness of breath and he became out of breath just walking from one side of his apartment to the other. He also had mild fatigue and headaches.

"I haven't necessarily felt this much lung congestion with anything I've ever had before, like a cough or a cold in the past," Herman said.

Still, he said he's experienced worse symptoms with previous colds and flus he's had. Herman acknowledged that he had no pre-existing health conditions, which could have helped lessen his symptoms.

"It definitely gives me a different appreciation for the real challenges that people would have, whether it's COPD or emphysema or any sort of lung condition," he said. "I can see why this would be very deadly for people like that."

Schneider told Fox News that she didn't start to feel symptoms until two weeks after she was exposed to the coronavirus at a February 22 house party.

"Three days later [after the party], I felt sick and I basically had all of the symptoms of the flu. I didn't have a cough, I didn't have any respiratory distress, tightness in my chest or shortness of breath. So, I actually thought I had contracted the flu," she told Fox News' Neil Cavuto.

Other people who attended the same party were sharing their own flu-like symptoms on social media, so they all decided to sign up for the Seattle Flu Study and got at-home nasal swab testing kits. They all came back positive for COVID-19. That was 11 days after Schneider first felt sick.

Schneider said her fever has subsided and she no longer feels ill.

Goldman previously told Insider that his first symptoms were a high fever and shortness of breath. He later developed a dry cough.

"After 48 hours, I would have been back at work if I wasn't contagious," Goldman, 67, told Insider from his room at the University of Nebraska Medical Center's National Quarantine Unit on March 13.

Goldman spent 10 days in a biocontainment unit once he was off the cruise ship. Doctors gave him ibuprofen to manage his fever and pain and Gatorade to keep him hydrated.

"It's a different sickness. Unlike a cold or flu, I did not have any stuffiness in my nose, no sore throat, no headache," he said. "Those are things I usually get with a cold."

After 10 days, Goldman had mild symptoms and was moved to a different facility where he remained as part of a clinical study on the coronavirus.

He told BBC Scotland that he was diagnosed with COVID-19 10 days after returning from a trip to Italy.

"I felt no symptoms. I was completely fine and went to work on the Wednesday and Thursday," he told BBC Scotland. "Later on the Thursday evening, I started to feel a bit of a flu coming on. I had a mild fever, I felt shivery, but the biggest symptom was aches and pains, particularly in my legs."

He later developed a cough and shortness of breath.

His test came back positive for COVID-19, and he was hospitalized right away.

The man said his symptoms were gone at that point, but he was kept in isolation for a few days until a swab test came back negative and he was released from the hospital.

"The mild flu symptoms quickly dissipated, I had no leg pain, no fever, no cough and no shortness of breath," he said.