Chris Cuomo Shares Lessons He's Learned During COVID-19 Battle

Chris Cuomo is sharing a health update with his viewers and revealing some lessons he's learned firsthand when it comes to fighting the coronavirus.

The CNN newsman opened Monday's episode of Cuomo Prime Time with a message of gratitude for his viewers and fans, sharing, "Personally, you have helped me heal in ways big and small. I will never be able to thank you enough."

"Our way through this remains one way: Together, as ever, as one," he added.

Cuomo, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 last Tuesday, went on to note the increasing severity of the coronavirus outbreak ravaging the country and the need for an increased, more aggressive response to the problem.

"It's not about the politics. If we don't have better detection, we will always be behind. And for the growing number of us that are going to face the beast, it doesn't just pass. It progresses," Cuomo said, somberly.

He explained that, when it comes to being infected, "It's weeks, not days. It's chronic and humbling. Your only chance is not catching it."

Cuomo was later joined by fellow CNN journalist Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who asked how Cuomo has been feeling after a week of intense fever and pain.

"I feel better than I deserve," Cuomo said. "And I now know that I can't just take it from this thing."

The CNN anchor said he found that the way to overcome the illness was not letting it keep you bed-bound and staying as active as your body will allow.

"When the fever spikes, you want to curl up in a ball and stay there for the next six or seven hours and you can't. You've got to bundle up your clothes on and drown yourself in fluids and take Tylenol," he shared. "You've got to force yourself to breathe, force yourself to get off your a** and walk around. It hurts. Everything in your body is telling you not to do it."

"The more I do, the more I push myself to do, the better I'm getting," he added. "So, I'm going to take faith in that for now. I'm not through it, but that's good [to remember]."

Last Thursday, Cuomo shared an update with fans and explained the extent of how bad his fever has been while battling COVID-19.

"I've lost 13 pounds in three days," Cuomo revealed. "Now, I'm a big guy, I started off at 230 pounds... [but] I'm eating and drinking constantly. I'm just sweating it out, and it's just the sickness."

He also explained how his symptoms, particularly his fever, seem to get worse as the day wears on.

"The beast comes at night," Cuomo said. "My fever has gone up a couple of degrees in like the last 30 minutes. Nights are tough."

Cuomo is working out of his basement, where he is still in quarantine to stay separated from his wife and their children. He has previously shared that his fever has been as high as 103, which even led to hallucinations.

"I was shivering so much... I chipped my tooth. I was up all night. I was hallucinating. My dad was talking to me," added Cuomo, whose late father, Mario Cuomo, died in 2015. "I was seeing people from college, people I haven't seen in forever. It was freaky what I lived through last night, and it might happen again tonight. Doctors said it could happen, like, five or eight times."

For more on Cuomo's diagnosis and his battle with coronavirus, see the video below.

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