Mark Prendergast, lead guitarist with Kodaline, has tested positive for coronavirus, Covid-19.

Speaking on this morning's 2FM Breakfast with Doireann & Eoghan show, Mark Prendergast spoke about his recent Covid-19 diagnosis, the symptoms, what not to do and his advice for Irish people.

He told the 2FM duo, Eoghan McDermott and Doireann Garrihy, that he feels he contracted the Coronavirus in Heathrow Airport and he described the symptoms he experienced.

“I am guessing I may have picked it up two weeks ago in Heathrow because I was in London,” Mark Prendergast explained. "About 10 days ago I felt this very, very dry cough. I was in my parent’s house and it was quite obvious that it was a new cough. I just kind of got up and said to my Da, ‘You know I am what I am going to go home, just in case!'

“I have never had a cough like it before,” he added. "Maybe three, four days after that I had a fever that lasted for four or five days. Overall my experience wasn’t as bad as it can get, so I suppose I am kind of lucky enough.”

Mark Prendergast described his experience as being “like a bad flu.” He said he was sleeping for 12 hours each night. “The cough is just, like, always there,” he said, "and that’s kind of gone now. You’re talking like 9 or 10 days.”

Mark described the experience of getting swabbed in Croke Park. “I had this vision of me driving onto the pitch,” he laughed, "but it is not: you drive in this back kind of alleyway.”

Mark cautioned listeners that complacency is not an option.

“If you have a cough, you have to take it seriously,” he advised. "Even when I had a fever on the couch I felt like I was overreacting. At the time it felt like I was being too overly-cautious and I felt like I was just over-reacting you know.

“I would kind of advise people not to be over-cautious. As soon as you feel symptoms, just treat it as there is a chance that you may have it. Don’t have it like ‘ah that will be grand mentality’ – that’s what I had.”

Mark made the mistake of going for a run when he was sick – not a good idea he now believes.

“There was one thing I did last week which was a terrible idea,” he said. "Because I was sitting around on the couch for like a few days and I thought it would be a good idea to go for a run. And it was fine but when I got back from the run, I had to lie on the couch for like two hours and I could feel this crazy tightness in my chest.

“I don’t think it is an amazing idea to do exercise… It was a really bad idea.”

Eoghan McDermott asked Mark Prendergast how his fellow Kodaline band members reacted to his diagnosis.

“I was kind of worried about them,” he confessed, "because I was with them like the week before last but they are all fine, they are all okay. They just said take your time and self-isolate.”

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