A regional journalist has revealed he was “close to death” after becoming ill with Covid-19.

Yorkshire Live senior reporter Maynard Manyowa has opened up on his experience of being hospitalised by the coronavirus, where he was “driven to within an inch of my life”.

Maynard, a chronic asthma patient, developed a sore throat and temperature while visiting family in Zimbabwe around Christmas 2020.

His symptoms got worse, prompting a doctor to shut down one wing of his hospital in order to admit him to a makeshift intensive care unit and, after a brief recovery, he deteriorated to the point where he “could not breathe on my own”.

In a first-person piece about his experience for Yorkshire Live, Maynard, pictured, wrote: “My mother says the doctor had tried everything but I continued to deteriorate.

“At that time, he felt my chances of survival, if I didn’t improve, were below 50 per cent, and that those that I loved needed to come and say goodbyes. It was that bad.

“The next days were spent in unimaginable pain. And even though I got better by the day, it would take me several more weeks to be able to walk across a room without running of breath.”

Maynard has since been vaccinated three times, having received his first jab in Africa and being told it would not be recognised upon his return to the United Kingdom.

Although he has tested positive for Covid-19 again, the worst symptom second time round was an “irritated throat”.

Added Maynard: “I have no doubt that vaccines work. I was reinfected by Covid 19 months after recovering from it, and when I should have had some immunity. My symptoms when I was reinfected were still terrible.

“I have since had three doses and then caught Coronavirus again. I did not have any severe symptoms.

“I do know from experience, that Covid 19 is not just a flu, and anyone telling you otherwise is being disingenuous. Nothing has ever driven me as close to death as Covid did.”

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