Chris Cuomo Says His Coronavirus Infection Is Causing Emotional and Psychological Illness: 'It's in My Head'

CNN host Chris Cuomo gave an update on his personal battle with the coronavirus on Monday night and warned that the novel disease causes emotional and psychological illness.

Cuomo opened his show Cuomo Prime Time tonight by telling his colleague Anderson Cooper that he was "doing better." Later in the show, Cuomo described his latest struggles with the virus when asked by CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta to detail his current condition.

"I feel better. I'm scared by this. I'm scared by the potential of this and it frustrates me because I can't get out of this basement," Cuomo said. "I still have this low-grade fever but I just can't shake it. And I know everybody tells me it's gradual, it takes time... but it is maddening to have this little stupid fever."

Despite the lingering symptoms, Cuomo assured the public that his "breathing is getting better, it's stronger." The host then described the "emotional" and "psychological" effects that he's suffered due to the virus.

"People are afraid to talk about it and I'm not," Cuomo said. "This virus creates emotional illness and creates psychological illness. I'm telling you it is in my head. Not just figuratively in terms of it messing with you because you've been sick for a long time."

He added: "It is causing people depression. And it's creating brain fog. It's creating edginess in people. I'm experiencing that. It messes with your head, this virus. I don't know where it leaves you afterwards."

Since announcing his COVID-19 positive diagnosis late last month, Cuomo has continued to anchor Cuomo Prime Time from the basement of his home where he is quarantined.

"I am a metaphor, Sanjay, for the country," the host said on Monday. "I'm ready to get out of the basement, I'm sick of being sick, I've had it, I want to get back to work. But I'm not ready and I don't have a plan to be ready. That's where we are right now."

Newsweek reached out to CNN for additional information.

Cuomo has been giving regular updates about his condition to the public over the past two weeks. Last Wednesday night, he told Gupta that he had been feeling "oddly spacey" and didn't know why. A few days before that, he revealed that his COVID-19 fever was so bad that he hallucinated seeing his deceased father, former New York Governor Mario Cuomo.

"I was up all night, I'm telling you, I was hallucinating," he said. "My dad was talking to me. I was seeing people from college, people I hadn't seen in forever. It was freaky, what I went through last night. And it may happen again tonight."

On Monday evening, more than 586,000 individuals had tested positive for the coronavirus in the U.S., with over 23,600 deaths and 36,900 recoveries.