Hello, I'm Nula McGovern, and we're bringing you coronavirus global conversations here on the BBC World Service.

As the global debt toll from COVID-19 increases, four people across three continents

share what it's like to recover from this disease.

We also hear from women after recently bringing new life

into this strange new world,

as well as the pregnant prisoner who was released early to give birth.

I would be locked down for 23 hours out of a day, only to go out to eat five minute at a table for your breakfast lunch and dinner. It's stressful.

For many of us, the pandemic has become a period of mental and physical survival.

And understandably, a lot of us are afraid, whether it's for our jobs, our family, or our health.

There are now more than 5 million reported coronavirus cases

around the world. And while it's widely accepted to be an underestimate, more than a third

of a million people have died with COVID-19. But let's not forget

that thankfully many more have recovered from the disease more than 2 million in

fact and four of these survivors share their experiences

after all ending up in intensive care units or ICUs. They are Michael and Jane

Winehouse, a couple in the US state of Missouri, Matilda in the upper East region of Ghana, and

Matt Dockray in the UK.

Started with fever and flu-like symptoms and then over two to three weeks it just got progressively worse and

worse to the point where I couldn't even get off the couch, gripping vice-like headaches

and struggling to breathe, a hacking cough, nothing coming up,

temperature of over 40 degrees, 41 degrees.

So my wife early the next morning when I was at my worst

...