Claire Byrne has tested positive for coronavirus

RTÉ presenter Claire Byrne has said she felt ‘shocked’ and ‘guilty’ when she tested positive for coronavirus.

Despite her diagnosis, the mother-of-three said she was feeling better and on Monday night she hosted her ‘Claire Byrne Live’ television programme via video link from her garden shed in Bray.

She said she started out having the symptoms of a head cold, before her condition worsened with a ‘ hacking cough’ and she was beset by ‘real fatigue’.

‘For three successive nights I was in bed with that hacking cough. I started getting breathless... I was getting to the point where I was struggling for breath.’

However she said she didn’t get so bad that she felt she had to call an ambulance.

On being told she had tested positive for coronavirus, the broadcaster said: ‘I can’t tell you what that’s like. It’s so shocking, particularly when you don’t expect it. Then I went into guilt mode because I felt, how many people have I given this to?’

She said she drew up a detailed list of everyone she had come into close contact with before falling ill and went through the list with a person from the army who had called her for contact tracing.

Among that list of contacts was Tánaiste Simon Coveney who had appeared on her show two weeks previously.

He said in a statement on Monday that he had been tested for Covid-19 but was told his test result was negative.

Ms Byrne last week hosted her Monday night current affairs show from her garden shed, telling viewers she had the symptoms of a cold. At that stage she was awaiting testing for the virus.

On Monday she told viewers: ‘ Thankfully my symptoms have abated and I think I’m through the worst of it.

‘I still feel quite guilty about it. I feel guilty about the people on my contact list.”

Monday’s programme was co-presented by Sarah McInerney from the RTÉ studio.