Confusion over hotel quarantine
People stuck in enforced isolation at Auckland hotels are complaining of poor communication about when they will be allowed to return home.
One 83-year-old man in ‘‘managed isolation’’ at Novotel at Auckland Airport after returning from a cruise told Stuff he had been forgotten by authorities.
Since the level four lockdown came into effect, all New Zealanders returning from overseas must self-isolate in the city they landed in for two weeks. More than 1000 unable to self-isolate at home had instead been forced to check in at hotels. From last Thursday all people coming into New Zealand, regardless of their plans, must be quarantined.
The Napier man, who does not want to be named, told Stuff he fears he has been forgotten after being given multiple conflicting instructions about when he would be able to return home.
Last night he said he believed his isolation was due to end that day, but in the morning a hotel receptionist said he would instead be moving to another hotel and have to wait till Thursday for the next flight to Napier. The man said he told staff he wouldn’t be leaving the hotel other than to get on a flight home.
‘‘I’m still waiting, it’s totally confusing, it’s absolute total confusion. I have been hardly told what’s happening, they don’t tell you anything.’’
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed last Thursday those leaving managed isolation after an international flight will qualify for domestic flights.
However, she also announced that from midnight Thursday every person arriving in New Zealand will have to go into compulsory quarantine.
A Ministry of Health spokeswoman said domestic flights taking healthy arrivals to the regions had been paused while the Government reviewed the new quarantine rules. But under the new rules, the 83-year-old man should be eligible from yesterday and will be given priority.
Christie Billingsley just wants to get home to Nelson after completing 14 days of isolation at Auckland’s Pullman Hotel.
She said there had been ‘‘no communication’’ while she and her partner, Stevie Lusty, had been at the hotel. They were given rules when they arrived saying they weren’t to leave their room, which they followed.
On the sixth day they phoned reception to ask about getting prescription medicine, Billingsley said, only to be told that rule applied only for the first 24 hours. After that, going outside for walks was permitted for two hours a day. Billingsley’s partner said she burst into tears when they walked onto the street for the first time in almost a week.
Billingsley said they didn’t know where to go for answers: ‘‘We didn’t even know how to contact people – the only number we got given was Healthline.’’
The couple now have flights booked to Nelson tomorrow, but they are footing the bill despite the Government saying domestic travel would be covered.
Worried they would also have to pay to stay in the hotel once
Kiwi in hotel quarantine
their 14 days’ isolation was up, they tried to book an Airbnb.
But they were told if they left the hotel, they no longer fell under government jurisdiction and would not be able to fly home because lockdown rules about essential travel would apply. They have now been moved to an apartment near the airport which they are not having to pay for.
A 27-year-old man staying at the Novotel at Auckland Airport told a similar story of miscommunication.
He called the lack of communication ‘‘a bit of a joke’’. ‘‘No-one knows what’s going on.’’
He said despite having an isolation plan and someone from his bubble to pick him up, he has not been allowed to leave the hotel.
The Ministry of Health has since said this is because the new rules put in place on April 9 apply to travellers who were in hotels before April 10, however the man was not told this.
Getting answers was impossible – he got told to talk to the Ministry of Health, police and army but none of them told him when he could leave, he said.
He said the rules about what they could do in the hotel had changed over the eight days.
He said he was trespassed from the airport after going for a walk near the hotel. He said he was walking at a 2-metre distance from others – which they had been told they could do – when they got issued with the notice, which means he faces up to three months in jail or a $1000 fine if he steps outside the hotel.
‘‘I have been hardly told what’s happening, they don’t tell you anything.’’