National MP Chris Bishop tests positive for Covid a week before his first child is due
National MP Chris Bishop has tested positive for Covid-19 one week before his first child is due.
His wife Jenna Raeburn has returned a negative test and the pair are isolating together at home in Wellington.
This afternoon Bishop posted a picture of his positive rapid antigen test on Twitter and said "ugh".
Ugh pic.twitter.com/VwkTZc89go
ā Christopher Bishop (@cjsbishop) June 14, 2022
He told the Herald he had been expecting he would contract the virus at some point.
"I was sort of hoping I would get it before now because Jenna's due to give birth next Wednesday, so it's not ideal timing but you just can't control these things can you? It is what it is."
Bishop said he got quite worried when he tested positive that he would miss the birth.
However, the couple's midwife advised them he could be present with extra protocols in place.
A Capital and Coast District Health Board spokesperson confirmed a Covid-19 positive partner would generally be permitted to attend the birth.
Bishop said they were prepared for the baby's arrival.
"We've got the bags packed, we're ready to go, we've got the nursery set up.
"We sort of anticipated this might happen, so I think we're in pretty good shape, but no doubt there's a few things that we've forgotten that we'll have to get delivered or get our parents to drop around."
Bishop said he had a tickle in his throat on Sunday night but tested negative on Monday morning.
This morning a TV interview was "fortuitously" changed from being in the studio to on Zoom.
Bishop said he returned a strong positive test after the interview and now has a tickle in his throat, cough, runny nose and a headache.
He and Raeburn have recently sold their home in Petone to build in Eastbourne, a sought-after seaside suburb in Lower Hutt.
In the meantime, the couple is living in Miramar in Wellington City's eastern suburbs while the house gets built. They are living in Raeburn's family home with her parents living in a newbuild at the back of the section.
In an interview with the Herald in January, Raeburn said she had recently got her Covid-19 booster shot and wasn't too worried about the threat of Covid-19 from the Omicron outbreak.
Bishop said at that time most people were now resigned to the inevitability that the variant would spread quite quickly and many New Zealanders will be exposed.