Former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett has opened up about her battle with Omicron after testing positive for COVID this week.
Bennett wrote a column published in the NZ Herald on Sunday where she revealed that three of the four members of her household had tested positive for COVID and that she felt fine "until suddenly I didn't".
"I thought I didn't care if I got Omicron, and I probably still don't but as I sit here typing on Friday morning, trying to engage my brain, I feel pretty lousy," she said "I have been the latest to come down with it. I felt fine, until suddenly I didn't.
"An hour and a half ago the headache and body ache started, I took a couple of Panadol and took a RAT test that immediately showed positive."
Bennett wrote in the Herald that everyone in the household still had an appetite, so just like any family thoughts have turned to what is for dinner.
She said everyone was in for a "rude awakening" as she had zero motivation to enter the kitchen, so they can live on cheese on toast.
It comes after New Zealand has seen a spike of COVID cases over the last month jumping from 126 infections on February 1 to the current record of 23,183 on Thursday.
But in positive signs, cases have dropped for two consecutive days.
But epidemiologist Professor Rod Jackson said New Zealanders shouldn't read too much into the case.
"I hear every day, and frequently every day, of people with symptoms not getting tested and of those with symptoms who do get tested not reporting them," Dr Jackson told RNZ.
"I think a lot of people have given up reporting, so I take next to no notice of the cases anymore. I look at the hospitalisations and the deaths."
