Prime minister’s anger rises as contacts revealed
An increasingly angry Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says recent Covid-19 cases have committed intolerable breaches of the rules and have let down the ‘‘team of 5 million’’.
But Ardern stopped short of insisting the Covid-19 cases, which included two mothers who went for a walk together during alert level 3, should be punished – citing the separation of police and state. Instead, she urged people to challenge their family and work colleagues if they do not follow the rules.
‘‘Even with the full understanding of human fallibility, it is not appropriate, and it is not OK for members of a team of 5 million to let the rest of us down,’’ Ardern said. ‘‘If there is any question mark right now over there being consequences, you know, those individuals are facing the full judgment of the entire nation. There are consequences, undoubtedly.’’
Ardern said she wanted people to support one another – ‘‘And if that means calling a family member or a work colleague out for not following the rules, then we should do that.’’ The severe tone from Ardern came as more details emerged of the rule breaches.
It now appears Ardern and her Cabinet locked down Auckland at the discovery of a community case without a clear connection to the existing cluster – only to discover it was a previously undisclosed contact with a known Covid-19 case.
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said it had been determined a mother in a second family identified as having Covid-19 had met the mother of the third family to catch the virus, Case N, for a
walk. The pair met up during the prior Covid-19 alert level 3, after Case F had been asked to quarantine due to their child attending Papatoetoe High School but before any member of the family had tested positive for Covid-19.
The walk was not previously disclosed to contact tracers when Case F was interviewed.
‘‘When you have people flout the rules multiple times, and particularly in a short space of time, you can see the consequences,’’ Ardern said.
‘‘The family here did go into quarantine but in the small window of 24 hours when they were at level 3, they broke a rule, never told us about it, and we have seen the consequences.’’
Though it had been asserted that Case M had broken the rules by going to the gym after receiving a Covid test, there appears some uncertainty about whether he had knowingly done so.
Neither Ardern nor Bloomfield could say whether Case M was instructed by a health professional that he should stay at home.
‘‘The advice is really clear and has been for some time, and it is the same around the country .... It may not have been what we did originally but, now, if you have a test then isolate at home until you receive the result,’’ Bloomfield said.
Ardern said Case M had spent two weeks in a managed isolation facility.
‘‘We drum in that messaging around the dangers of Covid pretty diligently for a full twoweek period of sustained propaganda.’’
Ardern was unwilling to accept the Government was at all responsible for the return to lockdown. ‘‘We always go back at look at what could we or should we have done to prevent this situation,’’ she said.
‘‘We were at the right alert level, we had instructions that were given out ... But equally we will keep asking people to abide by the rules as well.’’