A 30-year-old model with no underlying conditions was left gasping for breath in hospital after contracting coronavirus. She has now issued a warning urging other young people to take the pandemic seriously.

Like many coronavirus victims, when Intan Clement, a French and Australian citizen living in Paris, first began to experience symptoms of the virus, she assumed that she had a cold.

Clement's ordeal began to weeks ago with a light, dry cough. However, because she was in good health otherwise, she did not take her symptoms too seriously.

In an interview with Yahoo News Australia, she said: "I thought it was a simple cold - he hasn't had any other symptoms since that. I've been turning sicker and sicker."

A few days before she fell unwell, Clement's partner had been experiencing a fever and headaches, and she assumed that she had caught the illness from him.

She then experienced fatigue but "nothing too disturbing".

However, her symptoms dramatically worsened after she went skiing with friends the day before France was put on lockdown by its president Emmanuel Macron on March 16.

"It got very difficult at times to breathe while skiing and my body got quite tired but I assumed it's because I haven't skied in 10 years and I'm not really fit," she said.

The lockdown came into effect on March 17 and while traveling home from the ski resort, Clement's condition worsened.

"I didn't feel very well in the car and it took the whole day to come back from Valloire to Paris. Then when we got home I began to cough a bit crazy - mental," she said.

"I experienced more trouble breathing and couldn't breathe properly without coughing."

Then, on March 18, Clement noticed that her lungs were making abnormal noises when she breathed.

She phoned the emergency services on March 19, but she was not taken seriously. She was prescribed paracetamol and told that she likely had the flu, until she had a face to face appointment with a different doctor on March 20.

"I manage to walk there but that was painful and made me super tired,” she said.

“Any type of movement would make me exhausted and cough and lack breathing. At the GP I could not stop coughing. My body had difficulties handling the little walk to get there. I avoided taking paracetamol since the day before so we could check my temperature. I was sweating so much because my cough was so intense. My abs and most of my body couldn't stop contracting."

The GP then signed the necessary paperwork for Clement to be seen in an emergency room.

Explaining the process that followed and led to her being diagnosed with the coronavirus, she said she had "blood tests, lung scans, they put something horrible in my nose very deep."

"I've since been on respiratory oxygen support, intravenous for paracetamol, antibiotics mostly. I got an injection of anti-coagulant and antibiotic pills."

Clement has been hospitalized since March 20, but she is hoping to be released over the coming days.

She is now hoping that by sharing the details of her ordeal, other young people who are not in the at-risk category will heed government advice around the coronavirus.

"I don't think some people are taking the issue seriously enough," she said.

"France, like many countries, didn't realize how big this was going to be. Some French people still don't realize it and sometimes go out. Now the confinement in France is very serious."

These are the CDC recommended steps that you should take if you think you have contracted coronavirus.

A 30-year-old model with no underlying conditions was left gasping for breath in hospital after contracting coronavirus. She has now issued a warning urging other young people to take the pandemic seriously.

Like many coronavirus victims, when Intan Clement, a French and Australian citizen living in Paris, first began to experience symptoms of the virus, she assumed that she had a cold.

Clement's ordeal began to weeks ago with a light, dry cough. However, because she was in good health otherwise, she did not take her symptoms too seriously.

In an interview with Yahoo News Australia, she said: "I thought it was a simple cold - he hasn't had any other symptoms since that. I've been turning sicker and sicker."

A few days before she fell unwell, Clement's partner had been experiencing a fever and headaches, and she assumed that she had caught the illness from him.

She then experienced fatigue but "nothing too disturbing".

However, her symptoms dramatically worsened after she went skiing with friends the day before France was put on lockdown by its president Emmanuel Macron on March 16.

"It got very difficult at times to breathe while skiing and my body got quite tired but I assumed it's because I haven't skied in 10 years and I'm not really fit," she said.

The lockdown came into effect on March 17 and while traveling home from the ski resort, Clement's condition worsened.

"I didn't feel very well in the car and it took the whole day to come back from Valloire to Paris. Then when we got home I began to cough a bit crazy - mental," she said.

"I experienced more trouble breathing and couldn't breathe properly without coughing."

Then, on March 18, Clement noticed that her lungs were making abnormal noises when she breathed.

She phoned the emergency services on March 19, but she was not taken seriously. She was prescribed paracetamol and told that she likely had the flu, until she had a face to face appointment with a different doctor on March 20.

"I manage to walk there but that was painful and made me super tired,” she said.

“Any type of movement would make me exhausted and cough and lack breathing. At the GP I could not stop coughing. My body had difficulties handling the little walk to get there. I avoided taking paracetamol since the day before so we could check my temperature. I was sweating so much because my cough was so intense. My abs and most of my body couldn't stop contracting."

The GP then signed the necessary paperwork for Clement to be seen in an emergency room.

Explaining the process that followed and led to her being diagnosed with the coronavirus, she said she had "blood tests, lung scans, they put something horrible in my nose very deep."

"I've since been on respiratory oxygen support, intravenous for paracetamol, antibiotics mostly. I got an injection of anti-coagulant and antibiotic pills."

Clement has been hospitalized since March 20, but she is hoping to be released over the coming days.

She is now hoping that by sharing the details of her ordeal, other young people who are not in the at-risk category will heed government advice around the coronavirus.

"I don't think some people are taking the issue seriously enough," she said.

"France, like many countries, didn't realize how big this was going to be. Some French people still don't realize it and sometimes go out. Now the confinement in France is very serious."

These are the CDC recommended steps that you should take if you think you have contracted coronavirus.