CORONAVIRUS/Recovered COVID-19 patient describes trip to 'alien planet' and back

Within an hour of being informed on March 21 that she had tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus disease, Schoko was in an ambulance on her way to the hospital, carrying some hastily packed clothes, a boxed lunch, and a cup of bubble tea.
It was her first trip in an ambulance and the first time she was being hospitalized, she told CNA in a phone interview.

"I felt like I was in a spaceship, being transported to an alien planet," said Schoko, a Taiwanese in her 30s, who asked to withhold her proper name.

When she arrived at the hospital in New Taipei, she was allowed to walk on her own to a negative pressure isolation room, followed by two cleaners in full protective gear, disinfecting everything in her wake.

That walk was only the first step on a journey that would take 22 days before Schoko could emerge from her "alien planet."

​Read more: Focus Taiwan