S/N	Main Theme	Sub-theme	Quotes & Extracted Concepts
1	Health-system related factors	Perceived discrimination of infectious diseases due to fear of getting infected while caring for patients	“…Nobody wants to associate with you or touch what you have touched, when I was really sick, an expert doctor was called to review me but to my surprise the other doctors were telling him to leave”
		Feeling of neglect among patients due to health workers’ fear of getting infected	Patients felt they were being avoided by the health workers who were expected to attend to them due to fear of getting infected.
		Delay in getting results	“I had to lobby through a colleague for the sample to be taken and the result was not communicated on time.
		Difficulty in navigating the healthcare system to access COVID services	Frustration from delay in getting follow-up results
		Weak follow-up of confirmed COVID-19 cases.	“My experience at the testing site was chaotic…. they were rude and yelling at my son”. Complicated pathways to getting tested and retrieving test results
		Weak follow-up of confirmed COVID-19 cases.	Not all patients received medicines. Family members were not trained on infection, prevention and control in many cases and some patients isolating in their homes were not followed up by the response team or were reached over the phone after their treatment was almost over.
2	Confinement/ Isolation	Prison-like treatment of patients	“Feeling like a prisoner with no access to sunlight” “I was alone in my room; I was in prison”
2	Confinement/ Isolation	Limited social activities	Inability to engage in physical activities required for management of existing co-morbidities
3	Post-COVID trauma	Discrimination and stigmatization by people both literate and illiterate.	“I sensed discriminatory reaction…even by elites who think they are literate”
		Fear of re-infection.
		Fear of infecting family members.	“ I cannot sleep, and I feel like I have been reinfected again”
		Paranoia and astute awareness of the pandemic.	Fear of getting re-infected was stated by many and some sought professional psychological help.
4	COVID-related anxieties	Fear of the unknown	“I feel devastated and scared”
		Death anxiety	Many of the patients were not able to identify the source of infection. This created fear and uncertainty on how to protect themselves from getting re-infected
		Source of infection unknown
		Fear of re-infection.
		Heightened perception of self-risk	“This is an experience I can never forget…. COVID is real and it’s everyone’s responsibility to protect self and others”
			Patients were more careful and wanted people to know that COVID-19 was real and that it was a fatal disease
			Survivors were more aware of others’ complacency in observing safety precautions and condemned it.
		Fear of aggravated co-morbidities	“Need for exercises to keep us in shape”
			Patients with co-morbidities experienced challenges while in isolation.
			Some expressed that adequate care was not provided while in isolation; a patient stated that the caregivers did not pay attention to his blood pressure while in isolation.