Wellington, July 9, 2020
The government says that there will be a permanent Police presence at every managed isolation and quarantine facility in New Zealand from today, following this week’s breach in central Auckland.
The government has provided an update on its response to the Covid-19 epidemic and the management of isolation facilities for people returning to the country.
The news that Police will be at the facilities 24/7 comes after a 32-year-old man who was later found to have Covid-19 yesterday left an isolation hotel in Auckland and was outside the facility for 70 minutes.
It is the second escape from isolation; on Saturday, a woman at the Pullman Hotel got out by climbing over a fence and absconded for about two hours before being found nearby.
Possible measures
Air Commodore Digby Webb said police have agreed to station a uniformed officer at each isolation and quarantine hotel and there will also be a lead security professional at each facility to ensure protocols are followed.
Mr Webb said there were contracted guards on site 24/7 and “while they don’t have powers to detain, they work closely with site staff and police to monitor any activity and respond to events.”
A lead security position will also be at each managed isolation facility.
They will be on site in the next 24-48 hours.
Mr said there will be no smoking ban at the facilities, but all smoking areas will be monitored 24/7. He said that if they cannot be monitored, the smoking areas will be closed.
He said that they have advise from health officials that forcing someone to quit smoking is likely to cause them stress and increase aggressive behaviour.
Mr Webb said that all facilities that required fencing have had six-foot high fencing installed.
He also gave a break-down of the movements of the man who left isolation to visit a central Auckland supermarket on Tuesday.
Escapee’s 67 minutes
The man was logged into smoking area at 651 pm and escaped via the fence section being replaced. He walked to the Countdown, taking a relatively indirect route arriving at 702 pm. He spent 20 minutes there and then took a phone call for 22 minutes, which ended at 742 pm. He then took an indirect route back to the hotel, arriving at 758 pm.
During this time, he walked along Albert Street, Customs Street East, Queen Street and Victoria Street West.
Police turned up at the supermarket at 930 pm, after the man had returned to the hotel.
Police and supermarket staff then looked through CCTV footage and a decision was made then to wipe down the surfaces and clean the surfaces with which the individual had come into contact.
Building safer process
Dr Megan Woods, Minister in charge of Managed Isolation facilities, said that they had been working hard to build a safer, stronger exemptions process.
She repeated what the Minister of Health said yesterday saying: “Anyone who chooses to break out of these facilities is committing a reckless act of selfishness and we will come down on them with the full weight of the law.
“They don’t deserve to join the team of five million.”
She said that nearly 30,000 New Zealanders have been through these facilities and have complied with the rules and that people can apply for an exemption for exceptional circumstances such as medical exemptions, and exemptions for other reasons.
Assessment compliance
But those have been suspended since June 16, 2020 and that the government is working on assessment compliance.
Dr Woods said that applicants would need to return a negative Covid-19 test before approval is granted. A Covid-19 exemption compliance team within MB is being established and a strengthened assessment process is being put in place, Woods said.
She said that included a health assessment to determine the urgency of the request and any health risks the applicant may present.
“Those in quarantine facilities would be highly unlikely to be considered low-risk in the context of an exemption application,” Dr Woods said.
She said that the country had now seen 27,723 New Zealanders return home and go through managed isolation and quarantine since 26 March.
There are currently 5648 people in managed isolation and quarantine.
Charges against the man
Speaking about the man who escaped from managed isolation in Auckland on Tuesday, Mr Webb said: “This individual breached rules and he will be charged as a result.
“Everyone who goes into managed isolation knows the rules and over 99.97 percent of them have followed those rules without any problems… this individual didn’t and there are consequences to that. We will never be able to entirely remove the risk of someone making a choice to break the law, this is true in managed isolation just as it is in general society,” Dr Woods said.
He said it was his job to make sure that the law was backed up by as many preventative measures as possible.
–Published under a Special Agreement with www.rnz.co.nz
