MIQ escape: Answers sought after security breach

Opposition MPs asking how breakout not mentioned even as PM addressed country

It is not easy to get out of MIQ. . . You have to be quite deliberate to get out of MIQ. Ayesha Verrall

An investigation is needed into how a man with Covid19 was able to escape MIQ’s newest isolation facility early yesterday, some of the top Covid-19 response officials have acknowledged.

But Opposition MPs were yesterday quick to suggest there be an investigation into why the escape went unmentioned for hours, even as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the nation during her daily Covid-19 update.

The man was charged with failing to comply with an order after he left the Novotel & Ibis Ellerslie quarantine facility without permission at 1am, just hours after he arrived. It wasn’t until nearly 12 hours later that police in full PPE arrested him 10km away at a South Auckland house.

He has since been remanded on bail back to the MIQ facility.

Joint head of MIQ Brigadier Rose King described the breach as “disappointing and unacceptable”, while Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins said he was “very concerned”.

Associate Health Minister Ayesha

Verrall said the immediate priority was to figure out where he’d been and who he was in contact with, but she also indicated there would be a wider investigation “to make sure this doesn’t happen in MIQ again”.

“It is not easy to get out of MIQ,” she told Newstalk ZB. “They are wellstaffed, there is CCTV throughout, a perimeter patrol and two fences.

“You have to be quite deliberate to get out of MIQ.”

Police said they were told of the escape about 10.30am. They praised the man’s family for being “extremely co-operative”.

By 1pm, when Ardern and director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield went live with their press conference to announce the latest Covid-19 community cases and government response, details were still too scant to publicise, Hipkins said.

“I understand some preliminary information was provided to the Prime Minister. None was verified,” he said, adding he had not yet briefed Bloomfield on the matter at that point.

National Party Covid spokesman Chris Bishop called for an “urgent investigation into what happened”, as well as more answers as to why the escape was not disclosed earlier.

Taking to Twitter, Leader of the Opposition Judith Collins demanded similar answers.

“MIQ simply is a mess at the moment,” she later told Newstalk ZB.

The 243-room Novotel & Ibis Ellerslie has previously served as an MIQ facility for those arriving from overseas. It became the nation’s latest isolation facility specialising in those with Covid-19 just last week, amid the nationwide alert level 4 lockdown. Previously, all positive cases in Auckland were sent to Jet Park for quarantine, but the highly transmissible Delta variant has strained the system.

Ten people had escaped from MIQ facilities between the start of the pandemic and January.

Previous breakouts did not involve positive cases.