Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Auckland woman pleads guilty in court to evading MIQ guards

An Auckland woman who was previously hospitalised with Covid-19 - and was later the subject of a day-long manhunt in October after she gave MIQ guards the slip - has pleaded guilty.

Yvette Shelford, who no longer has the virus, did not seek further name suppression as she appeared at the Auckland District Court this afternoon before Judge Kirsten Lummis.

The 46-year-old Flat Bush resident was charged last year with intentionally failing to comply with an order made under the Covid-19 Public Health Response Act by failing to return to the Holiday Inn MIQ facility in Māngere on October 19.

Now she has been convicted, Shelford could face up to six months' jail and a $4000 fine. Judge Lummis is set to determine her sentence next month.

Authorities said in October Shelford had previously been seriously ill with the virus in hospital but was set to be transferred to the MIQ facility when she vanished. She was allowed to briefly return to her southeast Auckland home, accompanied by MIQ security, to tend to a pet and collect personal items, authorities said.

But after waiting outside the home for 10 minutes, security staff realised she had fled, authorities said.

The Holiday Inn in Māngere, Auckland is an MIQ facility. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

Shelford was one of three people with Covid-19 who were charged that day with escaping the same MIQ facility, prompting comment from joint head of MIQ Brigadier Rose King.

"These facilities are not prisons and these individuals have willfully absconded," she said.

"There are rules in place for every single returnee from overseas and now the positive community cases, and we expect people to follow these during their stay in managed isolation or quarantine."

During her first court appearance last year, in which she was put on speaker and addressed the judge through a mobile phone because of her diagnosis, Shelford was allowed to be released on bail with the condition she go to the MIQ facility and stay there until released.

Judge Lummis on Friday allowed her to remain on bail while awaiting her sentencing hearing.