Coronavirus: Kiwi COVID-19 patient's warning for healthy people

New Zealand's 37th COVID-19 patient says the virus is no joke and would hate to imagine an unhealthy person catching it.

Aucklander Jenene Crossan believes she caught the disease while travelling through airports in London and Doha. Although she was feeling fine when she returned to New Zealand, she still went into self-isolation at her bach in the Coromandel.

Shortly after, she received a positive test for COVID-19 and was sent to Auckland Hospital.

Crossan told The Project that the virus is "not just the flu".

"I'm a healthy individual, so I think it can get anyone, and I was pretty sick there for a while.

"If a healthy person can get that sick, I would hate to think what people who have compromised immune systems could get like."

She described the past week of having the virus as "pretty horrific".

"I call it the COVID-19 for over-40s because I keep coughing to the point where I pee myself, so that's a bit disappointing."

Crossan was only in hospital for four days and is now living in a caravan in her driveway while her husband lives in their house.

She says she isn't worried about having the virus now because she's been treated in hospital and being there helped ease her mind. 

There were 36 new cases confirmed on Monday, bringing the total to 102 in New Zealand. The Ministry of Health warns community transmission is likely for two cases.