Kiwis have been abused after contracting COVID-19, even after recovering from the respiratory disease.
An unnamed woman told NZME the attitude from people towards those who had contracted the illness was "horrible".
"You really learned if you had a hard shell or not," she said.
"I could handle it, but my children, they were treated like lepers."
The woman said most of the abuse she'd received was over social media.
"You do feel a little alienated, like the minority, but it's just kind of interesting - I've definitely answered the same questions over and over," said Craig Murray, another man who contracted the virus.
"At the end of the day it's just really lucky we didn't have any really serious symptoms and didn't infect any others," Murray told NZME.
Auckland man Geoff Muilaga Brown, who was earlier hospitalised with COVID-19 and has since recovered, is urging New Zealanders to be kind.
"After I'd spent about 21 days out of [the] hospital, and completely recovered, I was in the supermarket with my daughter and she saw a person filming me with their phone," he told the NZ Herald.
"I just encourage people to be understanding, nobody asked for COVID-19."
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield this week reiterated that message.
"There is no stigma around having had COVID-19," he told reporters.
"Please be kind. Make them feel part of our society."
