Michael Hopkins with his daughter Annette Loveland. Photo / Supplied
Michael Hopkins with his daughter Annette Loveland. Photo / Supplied
A New Zealand woman has been left heartbroken after the Government suspended all compassionate exemptions for people in managed isolation while she was mid-air.
Annette Loveland was en route to New Zealand from Australia on Tuesday with a pending application after her dad died of cancer when the Government made the announcement.
She's delivered an emotional message to the Government over its call: "Actually show some compassion, these are people's lives and people's deaths that we need to deal with - it's pretty difficult to deal with it from a hotel room, alone."
She says the decision shouldn't have applied to people who were in the air, or those whose applications were in process.
"If I'd been told that before I'd got on the flight, I wouldn't have got on the flight. If the Ministry of Health had said to me we cannot give you this exemption, if you arrive in New Zealand you will go into managed quarantine for two weeks, I would have not got on that flight, and then I could be with my family right now."
Loveland says she applied last week – before her father died - to carry out her isolation at her parent's house.
Michael Hopkins with his daughter Annette Loveland. Photo / Supplied
One of her sisters had done that very thing after also flying in from Australia.
"I was looking to do the same thing that she had done, hopefully I was going to manage to see my dad before he passed, he did unfortunately pass before I managed to get on my flight."
Her parents have a self-contained area in the base of the house, where her sister was able to carry out her self-isolation and visit upstairs wearing PPE and staying two metres away.
Her parents' local MP Scott Simpson also wrote a letter of support.
On Tuesday morning, before her flight, she rang authorities chasing up her application - and was told they were escalating it.
"They called me just as I was arriving at the airport ... [saying] we're talking to the exemptions team, you may have to spend a night in managed quarantine then you'll be able to leave once your exemption gets granted. That was the last conversation I had before I got on the plane."
It was during her flight that the Government suspended all exemptions, following the case of two women who were allowed to leave managed isolation on compassionate grounds before being tested.
"When I got off the flight I was actually expecting to have an email with my exemption in it so I could go from the airport to my parents' house."
Instead she had an update from one of her sisters telling her no exemptions were being granted.
"I rang my husband and had a cry to him ... it was just devastating, utterly devastating.
"It was because of these restrictions, and family and work commitments, I knew I wasn't going to be able to come twice - so we made the decision I would come for the funeral. So when he was getting very very very close, that's when we booked tickets and flights and things like that.
"So now it ends up I'm grieving alone - I've got no husband and no children with me, I've got none of my siblings with me, I can't see my mother, I can't see anyone."
On the first day of alert level 1, director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced those in managed isolation would no longer be able to apply to attend funerals - but could apply to spend time grieving with loved ones in small groups before and after the service.
"I put in my application letter I understand that these changes have also just happened, can I have an exemption to attend the funeral as well?"
She provided the statistics from the health district she lives in, and the statistics from the surrounding health districts, as well as her Google data showing where she'd been over the past couple of weeks so they could see she hadn't been anywhere near a health district that has an active case.
But she says in the end it was for nothing.
"To pay the price for someone else's incompetence is just so heart-breaking, I just want to be able to farewell my dad."
Loveland instead was forced to watch her father's funeral via a livestream from her hotel room yesterday.
On Wednesday morning she asked if she could fly back to Australia.
"In Australia I have a husband and three children and when I go back to Australia I'm going to have to have two weeks of quarantine upon arriving there as well, so the sooner I can get back there the better."
She says authorities told her she needed a new exemption to leave before her 14 days are up - but to get the exemption she needed to have a negative test, and she's been unable to get one so far.
Loveland says she's also struggled to access appropriate grief counselling while in the isolation facility.
