Green Party co-leader James Shaw is "feeling fine" and thinks his chances of having COVID-19 are "vanishingly small" despite getting a test after experiencing cold symptoms.
"Honestly, I'm feeling fine," Shaw told Newshub on Thursday. "I have what I would describe as an extremely mild cold. I would not go so far as to even call it a man flu."
Shaw earlier released a statement saying he was awaiting the result of a precautionary COVID-19 test after travelling to the south Auckland area over the weekend - where community transmission has been discovered.
"I developed minor cold symptoms after returning to Wellington from Auckland at the weekend," he said in the statement. "On the advice of health experts, I undertook a COVID-19 test to rule out the possibility of having the virus, and am currently staying at home while I await the results."
Shaw said it was a reminder that New Zealanders need to take any symptoms seriously and be tested if advised to do so by medical professionals.
"We all have a role to play in keeping COVID-19 out of our communities, and that includes following the advice of health experts."
He told Newshub he was recommended by his GP to get a test.
"I [took] the test because at level 2 if you've got symptoms the protocol is to get yourself tested and so I rang my GP, ran through the questions, and they recommended I go in for a test and so that's what I've done," he said.
"I think the chances are vanishingly small but the whole idea here is that you need to take the precautionary approach and follow the protocols and so I am."
Shaw said he was confident he could trace all the people he had been in contact with since he was symptomatic.
"Yes I am and actually we've gone so far as to ask our office to start contacting people from before I had symptoms just to let them know and obviously if people are concerned they can also talk to their GP or talk to Healthline."
Auckland has been put into alert level 3 lockdown after community transmission of COVID-19 was discovered while the rest of the country is at alert level 2.
Four cases were confirmed on Tuesday and there are now 17 community cases in New Zealand linked to the recent outbreak.
