PM speaks out about failure to isolate

WELLINGTON: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is not hiding her frustration over the latest Covid19 community case having gone to work when they should have been isolating at home.

Despite the fact that person —a family member of one of the Covid19 positive Papatoetoe High School pupils — was told to stay home and isolate, they still went to work at KFC on Monday.

Asked if this person should have been at home at the time, Ms Ardern said yesterday: “Yes, they should have”.

“They were always told that they weren’t meant to be operating in a Level 2 environment,” she said of the new case.

“They were still required to stay at home and be tested.”

When she learned that person, whom the Ministry of Health is calling ‘‘case L’’, had been at work, she was, “like everyone, frustrated”.

“We want people to do the right thing, because that’s what keeps everyone safe.”

She is asking for everyone who may have come into contact with the new case to “do the right thing” and isolate.

And if they do not, she is sounding a warning — “there is a section 70 order”.

That order means a medical officer of health can oblige people to isolate — “we have some legal footing for that’’.

But she does not want it to come to this. Instead, she wants people to “do the right thing” and selfisolate if they meet the new isolation criteria.

“That is how the rest of the country is able to stay at Level 1 with all their freedoms.”

About 11 KFC staff, who were at work at the same time as the new community case, are considered “close plus” contacts.

That means they must get a Covid19 test and isolate for 14 days along with everyone in their household.

Ms Ardern said these isolation measures went further than the usual practice.

The Covid19 infected KFC worker is part of the now 12strong Valentine’s Day cluster.

There were two new cases of Covid19 in managed isolation yesterday. — The New Zealand Herald