Lee County teen still battling COVID-19 after seven weeks

A 19-year-old freshman at the College of William & Mary, Mathis is a cheerleader and believes she contracted the virus in Washington, D.C., at the school's basketball conference tournament in March.

She began feeling symptoms as news of the spread of the virus became more and more prevalent. Mathis drove to UNC Hospitals to be tested. A few days later, the results came back positive.

Although COVID-19 predominantly impacts the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions, young, healthy people like Mathis are not immune to serious cases of the virus.

"Nobody is safe from this," Mathis said. "I feel like I'm living proof. I'm a young college athlete, and I've been completely knocked off my feet by this."

Mathis has been quarantined in her bedroom in Sanford for the past seven weeks.

"The only human interaction I have is my mom," she said. "It's very isolated, very depressing.

Mathis's mother is her primary caregiver and has been taking care of her throughout the course of her illness.

Mathis has suffered a high fever, body aches, chills, chest pain, stomach pain and headaches. She says the illness is so draining that she has been sleeping about 20 hours per day to try to fight it off.

Mathis has not required hospitalization at any point in her disease, but doctors are not sure why her condition has not improved more than it has.