Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom - A teenager who is coming out of a 10-month-long coma has no knowledge of the coronavirus as he completely missed the pandemic that has ravaged the world while he was comatose.

Joseph Flavill, 19, suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was hit by a car while walking along a street in Staffordshire, on March 1 last year.

At the time, the UK had only registered about 40 cases. It wasn't until three weeks later that Britain went into its first national lockdown and people started to take the pandemic seriously.

"He won’t know anything about the pandemic as he’s been asleep for 10 months. His awareness is starting to improve now but we just don’t know what he knows," his aunt, Sally Flavill Smith, told The Guardian.

Flavill, who was treated at Leicester General hospital and has now been moved to Adderley Green care center in Stoke-on-Trent to continue his recovery, even contracted Covid-19 twice during his coma, but recovered both times.

According to a Facebook post, the teenager is now slowly starting to emerge from the coma into a "minimally conscious state," and has been following commands by touching his ears, moving his limbs and responding through blinking.

However, due to Covid-19 restrictions, his family couldn't visit him and have only been able to communicate through Facetime. But his aunt said that his face lights up when he sees them on the screen, Staffordshire Live reported.

The family has been faced with the difficult task of explaining to him why they couldn't be in the hospital to visit their son. But they were unsure how much of it he has understood.

"How do you explain the pandemic to someone who has been in a coma?" his aunt said.

"A year ago if someone had told me what was going to happen over the last year, I don’t think I would have believed it. I’ve got no idea how Joseph’s going to come to understand what we’ve all been through."

Before the accident, Joseph was a sporty teenager with a passion for music, and was due to receive a gold Duke of Edinburgh award, a youth achievement award.

His family members have since raised over £30,000 (about $40,000) through a GoFundMe campaign to support Flavill's long-term recovery.