PM: Check staff following rules
After revelations that multiple people who have Covid-19 went to work while infectious, the prime minister has asked employers to ensure their staff are following the rules and restrictions.
On Tuesday, the Kmart store in Botany, east Auckland, was confirmed as a ‘‘location of interest’’. A teenager who tested positive had gone to work at the shop while contagious.
Three days later, the Ministry of Health announced that another case linked to the same cluster of infections had gone to work at KFC in Botany while contagious.
A third case had also been out in the community while they had symptoms, prompting the Government to move the Auckland region to alert level 3 and the rest of New Zealand to alert level 2 for a week.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she had another request for businesses: ‘‘Please check with your workforce to see if any are close or casual contacts of any of these cases or have visited any of the sites of interest.’’
Businesses should then ensure any of their staff who were meant to be in isolation stayed home.
‘‘Make sure they don’t come to work and that they get tested,’’ Ardern added.
‘‘Beating Covid is a team effort and, despite our best efforts to date, recent cases have gone to work when they shouldn’t have.
‘‘All of us need to do what we can to ensure that those who are most at risk of having the virus are staying at home. Doing so will help us get back to lower alert levels quicker and ultimately keep everyone safe.
‘‘We know staying at home is hard for many families. The Government has taken action to ensure wha¯nau are supported to break the chain of transmission,’’ Ardern said.
The Ministry of Health said 11 staff members at KFC Botany who worked at the same time as the infected person had been tested for Covid-19 on Saturday. Four of them had received negative results so far.
All 33 Kmart workers considered ‘‘close-plus’’ contacts of that case had also tested negative.