CUMBERLAND COUNTY, MAINE, Maine — After weeks of battling COVID-19, 21-year-old Madeliene Biache and 24-year-old Zoe Grant say they've recovered from the coronavirus.
"There's still some chest pain, but you know, the fevers are gone," Biache said. "Neither of us has been coughing for the last couple of days."
Doctors told the pair of friends they could assume they were no longer contagious and could leave the house: two weeks after the onset of symptoms or after they went 48 symptom-free, whichever comes second.
Biache and Grant diligently tracked their symptoms.
"We've been monitoring our temperatures a couple of times of days, keeping track of our symptoms," Biache said.
They even created a chart to record their temperatures.
Biache and Grant believe they had mild cases of COVID-19. Still, they say it has been a slow climb to recovery.
"I'm still using an inhaler at night," Grant said. "Although we strongly feel we're not contagious anymore, we've heard the lung pain can last a while."
After weeks inside of an apartment, the young women say they're looking forward to simple activities.
"Seeing my parents and seeing my dogs," Grant laughed.
"I'm excited to go to the grocery store and be six feet away from people instead of an apartment away from people," joked Biache.
While the pair are excited to return to life outside of quarantine, they recognize the world they'll return to is rather different than the one they shut their doors to three weeks ago.
"It's weird because it feels like, oh, it's over!" said Grant. "We keep talking about how when we get out of quarantine it will be great to go to Target, but we're like, oh wait, no."
While the larger coronavirus fight is far from over, Grant and Biache say they're grateful for their health and to everyone who got them through three difficult weeks.
To hear more about Biache and Grant's road to recovery, follow these links:
At NEWS CENTER Maine, we're focusing our news coverage on the facts and not the fear around the illness. To see our full coverage, visit our coronavirus section, here: /coronavirus
NEWS CENTER Maine Coronavirus Coverage
RELATED: City leaders use Portland Expo to help prevent spread of coronavirus in homeless population