Ms Kilroy serves as head of Sisters Inside, which is an advocacy group for female prisoners who made the trip to the US recently.

She found that she had tested positive, along with her friend Boneta-Marie Mabo, Aboriginal and Torres Strait rights advocate and Eddie Mabo’s granddaughter after three days of isolation upon her return.

After arriving back in Australia with her advocacy group, Ms Kilroy said she was feeling fine during the initial period of quarantine.

“I’m healthy and should be fine after 14 days,” Ms Kilroy posted on Twitter.

But in the afternoon after she had posted that her condition began to worsen.

“Day 3 in quarantine in our community,” she posted.

“I feel quite unwell with flu-like symptoms. Don’t risk your health [be]cause [the] virus is vicious. Self-quarantine and take care everyone.”

Ms Kilroy said as the days went on it was getting harder and harder.

It was on day seven when Ms Kilroy said she felt the worst, describing that contracting the coronavirus was a “horrific” experience.

“Day seven was horrific. I felt so sick,” Ms Kilroy said.

“Body aches, congestion, feel like I could vomit for hours, lethargic, just when I thought I was on the way up I’ve crashed [and] burnt today.”

“This virus is horrific. So many people are dying. It’s terrifying #COVID-19. Plz look after yourselves,” she wrote on Twitter on the day.

On day eight, Ms Kilroy said that her health was deteriorating and that she was getting increasingly scared after having always been healthy and strong. She was then subsequently hospitalised after eight days of quarantining.

Ms Kilroy said she is still testing positive for the virus with slight symptoms, however noted that she was getting better as the days went ahead, especially after day 10.

“It’s so good to be out of the hospital and to be able to sit in the fresh air [and] sun,” Ms Kilroy wrote.

“This has made me feel human again. My energy is a lot better [and] I’m feeling generally well.

“I’m still testing positive but hoping the virus is shedding from my body.”

Although she has tested positive for COVID-19, this hasn’t stopped Ms Kilroy from campaigning for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to be released from jails and detention. 

She had warned prisoners will face a greater risk if coronavirus hits Queensland’s jails, calling for young prisoners to be released to protect them.

“We cannot stand by and wait for COVID-19 to hit our youth prisons. We must release our children before the virus hits,” Ms Kilroy said.

“We cannot stand by and risk our children’s lives.

“Being remanded or sentenced to a prison term is not a death penalty in Australia. When COVID-19 hits our prisons, many will die. We must release people now before the virus hits. Prisons are incubators of disease.”

When asked about the possibility of releasing prisoners on remand due to the recent outbreak, a spokesman for Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said “remand decisions are a matter for the courts”.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Youth Justice said no youth detainees had met criteria for testing and there had been no exposure at either youth detention centres.

“To date there has been no disruption to court outcomes for young people because of COVID-19 but Youth Justice will continue to monitor the situation including taking advice from Queensland’s courts,” the spokeswoman said.

Recently, prisons have been a major legal rights focus during COVID-19 with over 300 legal experts and advocates calling for Australia to act on prisoner safety during the coronavirus outbreak.

Prisoners in WA had recently set fires and damaging buildings causing a riot in the remand centre in Hakea Prison as prisons in WA braced for COVID-19.