Myroslava Coates' nine-month-old baby Cassian was diagnosed with coronavirus on Monday.

She and her husband Callum are now self-isolating with him at their home in Manchester.

The concerned mother told Sky News what the whole ordeal has been like.

Cassian's been poorly for a few days so we took him to the doctors. He's had a chest infection before so I think that's how we got an appointment, it's been difficult to get them.

When we got there, we had to go through special measures and ring a certain number for them to let us in. The waiting room actually had a big sign up saying "suspected case".


Image: Cassian is only nine months old

Me and my husband were like "oh my God", then a nurse walked past and said "yeah, that's you guys".

We went in, then the doctor came in with a mask on, did some basic checks, temperature, checked his ears and said "yeah, it's the coronavirus strand".

We weren't expecting that. Cassian had a fever and cold but not the cough and symptoms everyone was talking about.

He's nine months old so any time they have anything wrong with them it's horrific but this, we were like "wow".

Image: Myroslava and Callum Coates' baby Cassian had a fever which turned out to be coronavirus

As bad as it sounds, the first thing we did when we heard was laugh because we just couldn't believe this was a thing and that Cass had it.

It's so sensationalised in the media and you just hear about the worst cases. We wondered where he caught it because my husband and I are both fine.

I did panic but I cannot express how fantastic and reassuring our GP was. They said that with children this age they are diagnosing by symptoms.

We were told to go home to self-isolate for two weeks and keep giving him Calpol as if it was a cold.

The doctor said babies pick up what's going around and at the moment, that's coronavirus.

The GP said it's going to be common and we just have to stick to the rules to protect ourselves and others.

People need that reassurance of someone saying "it's ok", but that's not being provided.

Image: The couple are in isolation with Cassian, but have shown no symptoms

You're told "don't go to your GP, don't go to hospital unless you're really sick", so obviously there's a gap there.

I don't think guidelines have been clear enough.

It's only yesterday we were all told to self-isolate, when other countries were told that weeks ago.

You just see death rates and things being shut down in that scary way.

People are online, there are reports, there's media but we don't know what's real and what's not.

Image: The doctor tested Cassian's ears and temperature then diagnosed him with coronavirus

So, as soon as we found out about Cass we put it out there on social media and we've had a ridiculous amount of messages, mostly from other parents asking "how did you get tested, my child's had a cough?".

But as the doctor said, this is going to be really common.

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We've been counting cases but it's going to go past that soon so we felt like we needed to spread the news that it's ok, it's not as horrific as you think it could be.

There are peaks and troughs but thankfully Cassian is over the worst of it.