Fans of Newshub Europe correspondent Lloyd Burr will be pleased to know he's back from a brief hiatus after falling ill, appearing on The AM Show on Thursday for the first time in more than two weeks.
While the exact cause remains unclear, Burr was told by his doctor in the UK to presume he had contracted COVID-19.
"I just woke up one day and felt like my head was in a vice and had body aches and bed sweats, I just felt absolute rubbish. So I put myself to bed and that ended up being a period of time that lasted for 18-odd days. It was pretty horrible," Burr told The AM Show.
Despite video calls with his doctor and repeated requests to get tested, Burr says it's nearly impossible to get tested for the virus in the UK - meaning its official case statistics are likely to be huge underestimates.
"I couldn't find out whether it was COVID-19 or not... the level of testing is just appalling. You cannot get tested, you can't even get a testing kit in the mail. I looked at a number of different options but they were all going to cost me about NZ$600, just to find out for a bit of peace of mind whether I had it or not," he explained.
"The doctor said just 'assume that you've got it, because all the symptoms you [have] are in line with those of COVID-19' - although I didn't have a persistent dry cough. I had everything else from a fever, chills, bed sweats, body aches, headaches... I had a temperature all the time and no energy whatsoever.
"It comes in waves... it was really horrible. There was a time I thought maybe I do need to go to the hospital and see if this is more serious... but at no stage did I think I was going to die because my breathing was pretty good throughout."
An antibody test, set to become available in the UK within the next few weeks, is the only other available avenue to proving whether or not the illness was COVID-19.
Cracks in the UK COVID-19 response
Burr says he was instructed by his doctor specifically not to call an ambulance if he experienced breathing difficulties as paramedics could take "four hours" to arrive, highlighting how hugely overwhelmed the UK's emergency services are in the fight against the escalating outbreak.
Instead, Burr was advised to organise a contingency plan with a friend who had a vehicle, in case he required urgent hospitalisation. While finding a friend with a car in central London is almost impossible, he says it was stressful knowing that requiring immediate care could present problems.
"Coming up with plans whether to hire a car, order an Uber, just to get to the hospital... it was quite a concern coming up with a plan in case I did get breathing difficulties."
The UK's death toll, which currently stands at more than 12,800, only counts deaths by COVID-19 in hospital - meaning the official statistics may not be representing potentially thousands of additional deaths within the community.
"If I had died at home in my flat, I wouldn't be included in the official statistics because I didn't die in hospital. So the [death toll] figures the UK are releasing each day - today the death toll rose by 761 people - those figures [don't represent] those out in the communities, say at home or at rest homes.
"Some experts are saying [the figures] are maybe 15 percent higher than those being reported. Maybe it's closer to 15,000 deaths so far, because the stats just aren't reliable."
The extreme underestimates also may apply to the UK's number of confirmed cases, which currently sits above 99,400 according to the latest data.
"They're not testing people, so when they say 98,000 people have got coronavirus in the UK, it's probably a couple of hundred thousand higher than that.
"There's so many people who, like me, are stuck at home dealing with it themselves [and can't get tested]. So take those figures with a grain of salt."
