It was the Monday night after he attended a Friday wedding, that Daniel Rowntree started feeling crook.

"My symptoms were fever [and] night sweats. I had three days of those," said the 45-year-old Sydney DJ and music producer.

"The Thursday I came through, recovered. I was like 'Wow, I feel amazing, whatever it was for those three days is gone'."

But then friends of Daniel's who'd also been at the wedding, contacted him to let him know they'd tested positive for COVID-19 and recommended he get checked out too.

So he went for a test, and a day later, he found out he had coronavirus.

Now, after self-isolating himself, Daniel has come out the other side.

He is one of more than 600 Australians who've recovered from COVID-19, although the true number is likely to be much higher as this figure is only reported in four jurisdictions — Victoria, WA, the ACT and Tasmania.

"Overwhelmingly in Australia, patients have been having good recoveries," said Greg Fox, an epidemiologist and respiratory physician at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

"Although we sadly have had a number of deaths, the proportion of Australian patients with COVID who've died is much lower than has been seen in other countries," Dr Fox said.

Data from several global studies suggest that around 80 per cent of people will have mild to moderate symptoms of the disease, 20 per cent will have more significant symptoms, and maybe 5 per cent of people will require intensive care admission.

Stuck in his room for 11 days

Daniel said he felt strange but not nervous or anxious about his diagnosis because he had been in really good health for the 24 hours before having the test.

"I felt like I'd been through the worst of it already and I was starting to feel better," he said.

But as he didn't want to infect his flatmate, he stayed in his bedroom as much as possible for the next 11 days.

"It sucked, but I had no symptoms at that point [aside from] really mild sneezing and coughing," Daniel said.

"But nothing that would have ordinarily stopped me from leaving the house."

That's the experience for the vast majority of patients, Dr Fox said.

"Most people with COVID-19 will experience a flu-like illness with mild symptoms that will last for maybe a couple of weeks," he said.

"Then there'll be a recovery after that and they'll go back to being completely well."

While some people may continue to be fatigued for a few weeks after, just like with other viral illnesses, there's no residual impairment.

"We can reassure people that most patients who develop COVID-19 make a full recovery and that they don't have any long-term health effects from it," Dr Fox said.

Research suggests it is possible to still be infectious even after symptoms improve, which is why people must follow the Federal Government's guidelines around isolation.

"Currently people who have mild illness who do not require hospitalisation may be released from isolation if at least 10 days has passed since the onset of symptoms and there has been resolution of all symptoms for the previous 72 hours," Dr Fox said.

"Some people may also have specimens tested for [traces of the virus] before they are released from isolation, but this is not required for most people."

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People who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 will also be given instructions about what to look for if they feel they are getting worse.

"We know that for some people after about 10 days or so they can develop the pulmonary manifestations more severely," Dr Fox said.

"So that's usually the timeframe where people may become more breathless. And if that occurs, then it's important they are assessed and their oxygen levels are measured."

Daniel said he was really lucky he got such a mild dose of COVID-19.

"I just thought, this can't be what everyone's talking about," he said.

"I've had friends who have gone through absolute hell and haven't been able to get out of bed for two weeks, let alone wanting to even do anything else."

Getting the all-clear

During his self-isolation, Daniel was in touch with New South Wales Health and St Vincent's Hospital where he'd originally been tested.

"They were calling me probably every three or four days," he said.

Daniel in a mask at the COVID-19 clinic at St Vincent's Hospital waiting to get tested. ( Supplied: Daniel Rowntree )

He also had to give a list of everyone he's been in contact within the 24 hours before he first developed symptoms, so they could be notified they'd been in contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case.

"[I] actually had my birthday lunch — can you believe it? — the day before, so I had all my buddies there," Daniel said.

But, he was thankful, none of them got infected.

"I have to say New South Wales Health and St Vinnies have been absolutely amazing, I've been blown away by how amazing they've been," he said.

"They would check in on me, and then once I'd been in isolation for 10 or 11 days and I hadn't had symptoms for three days, they were like, 'Let's get you back in and let's check you'."

Daniel's first recheck test came through as negative, then he got tested again within 24 hours. This also came back as negative.

"Then you get this brilliant piece of certificate that says, 'You are coronavirus-free, you've had your double negative, and you're now allowed to continue on with your life'," he said.

While Daniel was retested, Dr Fox said most people with mild symptoms don't need to get the double-negative test.

"The reason is we think the risk of people who've got mild disease of having persistent viral excretion is low," he said.

Is Daniel now immune to COVID-19?

The doctors at St Vincent's Hospital told Daniel it would be highly unlikely that he would get reinfected with this coronavirus, nor can he be a carrier of it.

"They basically said you won't get this virus until there's a separate strain of it, but otherwise you are in the clear until the beginning of next winter," he said.

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Other coronaviruses do induce immunity, and there's no reason to think that is not the case with this one, Dr Fox said.

"But we'll need to wait to see what happens for people who have recovered. At the moment, that number of people is small and so it's important that we don't give any definitive answers yet," he said.

But it's something that going to be really important to determine, he said, because as a population, we need to develop immunity to protect ourselves against infection in the future.

Daniel is at a lower risk of transmitting this coronavirus than other people in the community because it's unlikely he'll catch it again, but like everyone else, he is still at risk of touching surfaces infected by other people and passing it on.

That means he's still following all the strict protocols set out by the Government including social distancing and not touching people.

"I'm following the guidelines as if I'm just any other member of the population," he said.

What Daniel did next

The focus now for Daniel is on how he can help others get through this difficult time.

"My career's dried up and that's fine, I'm not crying poor about that. But I'm like, how can I best use the next two to three, four months of my life?" he said.

"I've got a car, I'm a healthy young male, I can help people do things."

So far that's included taking groceries to a friend in isolation and helping another self-isolated friend who had to move house, but he's looking for more positive things he can do now that he can't pass on the virus.

And if people got in touch with him after reading this story?

"I would love it if some stranger reached out to me and they were like 'I'm in the shit, I need a hand', I would be so stoked with that," he said.

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