- Wilber Portillo, of Denver, Colorado, passed away on November 19 and days later his COVID-19 test came back positive.
- The 18-year-old tested positive for COVID-19 during the first week of October, but he was quarantined for a month and recovered and tested negative, Fox reported.
- He fell ill in November, went to the doctor for a COVID-19 test and, according to the GoFundMe family, died in his sleep that night.
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Wilber Portillo feels good a month after testing positive for COVID-19. The 18-year-old from Denver has been quarantined for a month after testing positive for the virus in the first week of October, Fox Denver 31 reported.
Andrea Ferrel, the girlfriend of Portillo, told Fox Denver 31 he thinks he developed immunity after recovering, but within the second week of November, Portillo fell ill again.
His condition worsened, and Portillo went to the doctor on November 18 where he was diagnosed with a serious respiratory infection and tested for COVID-19.
Portillo died in his sleep that night. Two days later, his COVID-19 test came back positive, the family said.
His cousin, Ferrel, both told Fox Denver 31 they believe he contracted the virus for a second time after recovering from his first attack on COVID-19.
Scientists are still determining whether it is possible to have COVID-19 for a long period of time with severe flare-ups. COVID-19 elongators, or people who have been experiencing symptoms of the virus for months, have formed a community around their struggle to deal with COVID-19 in the long run.
Tests can also yield false-negative results for COVID-19.
Read more: COVID-19 killed thousands of young Americans. This is not just a tragedy for the elderly.
COVID-19 not only affects older people
Portillo is among the striking number of young people who have died from COVID-19, despite the common misconception that the virus is generally only dangerous for the elderly.
While the virus is 90 times more likely to kill someone aged 65 or older than someone aged 20 to 29, young people are still dying at an alarming rate from the virus, Aylin Woodward and Susie Neilson of Business Insider reported earlier.
“Just because you’re young, you’re not immune to it, and even though we’re seeing more cases with older people and people with health conditions and even people without health conditions, it’s important that you stay home,” Ferrel told Fox Denver 31.
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