Adil Rehman, 29, a resident of Bara Tehsil in Khyber, became the first Covid-19 patient to have fully recovered from the virus in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, when he was discharged from the Police Services Hospital in Peshawar on Wednesday.

He is uncertain of how he contracted the virus but knows very well what happens after. “It was just raging temperature and bone crushing body aches.”

Adil says when he first got sick, he decided to stay inside and weather the storm at home – relying on homemade treatments. But when his condition deteriorated, he went to a private hospital where he was tested for the coronavirus.

A couple of days later, the private hospital contacted him and told him to come in. There, he was told he had tested positive and was then handed over to provincial authorities, who shifted him to Peshawar's Police Services Hospital.

At the police hospital, Adil says he was tested for Covid-19 once again but there was no change in the outcome.

“The news fell on a me like a thunderbolt and I suddenly realised I had no way of returning to normal life anytime soon. My heart sank as soon as I entered the Police Services Hospital," Adil narrates.

But it was not long before things began settling down. Adil says he was provided a separate room, where he was visited by a doctor at least once a day.

"I could not see the doctor's face as he was shielded behind personal protective gear. He used to hurry out of my room."

Two or three nurses also came to his room throughout the day for temperate checkups.

He says doctors and staff at the hospital looked after him well, which is why his condition continued to improve with each passing day.

"My room was regularly cleaned and hygiene standards were good," he adds, but laments the quality of food which he says was not up to the mark.

For most of the day though, he would be glued to his phone, watching how the world was being taken over by the same virus which had brought him down.

"This [following news] would often unnerve me during my days in the hospital," Adil says.

On his sixth day at the facility, Adil was informed by one of the doctors he was retested and his results came back negative.

“I do not have words to describe what I felt when I was informed that I was virus free,” Adil tells DawnNewsTv with a smile on his face. "I felt like I had been given a second life."

"All I'll say is that while there is nothing to fear, the coronavirus should not be taken lightly," he tells everyone these days.

To date, there are 180 confirmed cases of the novel virus in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, of which seven have recovered, while four have died.