Anger and frustration mounts over bungled isolation protocols. Video / Dean Purcell / Mark Mitchell / Jacinda Ardern
Opinion by Derek Cheng
Derek Cheng is a Multimedia Journalist for New Zealand’s Herald. He values holding those in power to account and shining a light on issues kept in the dark.
Just last week, health chief Ashley Bloomfield advised Cabinet that New Zealand was ready to move to level 1 because domestic transmission had been vanquished and imported cases were being captured and secured.
But border controls remained critical in the ongoing global pandemic,so a suite of tougher measures were announced to accompany the move to alert level 1.
Testing for every overseas arrival on day three and day 12. No leaving managed isolation without a negative test. No compassionate leave for funerals or tangi.
Leave may be granted to see a dying loved one or to grieve a death in a small group, but only if you've been in the country for at least a week and have tested negative for Covid-19.
But it makes no sense to exempt them just because they flew in two days before the rules were announced. It's not like they would have tossed out their plans to come to New Zealand if they had known the extra measures would be put in place.
In any case, their circumstances were deemed exceptional and they were allowed to drive to Wellington as long as they got tested there - which is where they both tested positive.
Public health experts talk about lines of defence, and this was not the only one that failed.
The daily health check for the women while in managed isolation was a mere "are you okay?" rather than a rigorous run-through of all Covid symptoms.
Bloomfield conceded that the women may have never been granted leave if they had been asked the right questions, which could have led to the discovery of a sniffle or a sore throat.
This even seems likely given that one of them had mild symptoms, which she put down to a pre-existing condition.
Instead, we have what appears to be the inexcusable situation where a symptomatic traveller was allowed to leave managed isolation.
The country may be upset at the women for breaking our Covid-free streak, but it's not their fault they were granted leave after losing a parent.
They even did us all a favour by driving to Wellington without refuelling and avoiding public facilities.
They arrived in Wellington on Saturday night, grieved with one family member, and didn't contact anyone else until they went to get tested.
But they could have done all kinds of things. Compassionate leave is built on trust.
Just how easily it can be exploited was on display when two Hamilton teenagers ran off after being granted leave last week.
They were eventually found, but Bloomfield was unable to say how many days it took to find them. If they had been Covid-infected and had contacted dozens of people, Bloomfield wouldn't be so confident that a second wave wasn't on the way.
The Government has talked ad nauseum about the need for border controls, and it had little choice but to suspend all compassionate leave for the time being.
It has faced a barrage of criticism, and even High Court action, for its perceived lack of compassion in the face of a global Covid pandemic.
If anything, the latest cases support her refusal to bow to pressure on compassionate leave, the criteria for which only broadened after the court ruling.
She has also been rightly resolute that the border must be watertight, especially as calls become louder for a transtasman travel bubble and the return of international students.
While it seems that the two women and their contacts are contained for now, our crucial lines of defence failed. That is an embarrassment to the Government and health officials.
The Prime Minister is understood to be disappointed, but given what's at stake if a second wave hits, she should be livid.
