Former Italian professional Filippo Pozzato has been hospitalised with severe pneumonia, after he contracted Covid-19 a couple of weeks ago. The 40-year-old is also unvaccinated against the disease, and has called himself an "idiot" for waiting so long to receive his first dose.
Pozzato has urged others not to make the same mistake that he has, and also explained why it has taken him so long to get vaccinated.
He told Tuttobici: "Why hadn't I been vaccinated before? Because I have always felt strong, I have been among people who had done Covid and nothing had ever happened to me. I was an idiot, and I have taken a good beating.
"Guys, don't mess with fire, I've already burned myself."
Pozzato fell ill on October 22, claiming that his body temperature reached as high as 39-and-a-half degrees for 10 days. The Italian was due to receive his first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on October 25, but couldn't because he had tested positive.
His health then began to deteriorate even further, with a lack of oxygen replacing his fever. It was at this point that he was taken to hospital with severe pneumonia.
He has received oxygen, but he isn't on a ventilator yet.
"I have severe pneumonia," he continued. "Everyone says that Covid looks like bull****, but when you get it you understand that it is not at all. I am attached to oxygen to open my bronchi, but if I get worse they make me wear a mask.
"I started to feel bad with a bit of a fever: 37 and a half, then 38. I immediately do the swab, it's Covid. Then I was 39 and a half for almost 10 days.
"Three days ago, my fever went away, but my oxygen saturation plummeted, I went down to 87, then 86, I had oxygen tanks at home, it went to 83, I couldn't even stand up and they brought me here."
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