Ill woman knocks on strangers’ door for help
A senior police officer says emergency service workers handled an unusual situation well after an unwell woman knocked on a stranger’s door during the Covid-19 lockdown
The head of the Hastings-based Eastern Police District Covid-19 Management Centre believes “everybody did the right thing” after a woman took ill in Flaxmere yesterday morning.
The woman is understood to have arrived at an address in Dundee Drive, asked to use the toilet, and was seen to be unwell.
Emergency services were called to the address at 11.12am, and she was taken to hospital, police reported, and ambulance and police staff arrived wearing protective plastic and masks.
It was not immediately clear what was wrong with the woman,
No other details were available, but Inspector Dean Clifford said: “It sounds like all the right things were done.”
Clifford said the appropriate response in the crisis and lockdown was that the dedicated Covid-19 Healthline 0800 358 5453 should be called at the first sign of possible symptoms.
Police would have an extra “presence” during the weekend reinforcing the message that everyone needs to stay at home and “follow the guidelines,” he said.
“We are going to be out and about talking to people about being compliant,” he said.
By late-afternoon Friday he was not aware of any incident in Hawke’s Bay where anyone had to be taken into custody for not being compliant with the restrictions announced on Wednesday.
“We are responding to a lot of information about people who may not be compliant,” he said.
“It’s good to see. Most people are taking it very seriously.”