Harete Hipango spoke at last year's White Ribbon march in Whanganui. Photo / Bevan Conley
Harete Hipango spoke at last year's White Ribbon march in Whanganui. Photo / Bevan Conley
Whanganui MP Harete Hipango has tested negative for Covid-19.
Hipango has been in self-isolation since March 13 as she had been feeling unwell.
She was assessed in Whanganui earlier in the month but told since she had been in self-isolation for 14 days she would only be tested if shewas unwell for another five days.
Since then she has been tested for Covid-19, with the results coming back negative.
"I think I was the victim of a long dose of the flu or a cold, like a lot of other people out there," Hipango said.
"It was really a case of timing, being down in Parliament with large tourist groups still coming through, and falling ill not long after that."
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Hipango said there was "a little uncertainty" over whether she needed to get tested or not.
"After I had been unwell for two or three weeks, I wanted to get certainty, so I went in to get tested, because I knew that it was during the Covid-19 incubation period.
"My symptoms fitted, but I wasn't swabbed because of the two-week incubation period, and I was told to come and represent in five days if I was still unwell.
"I did, and luckily my results came back negative."
Hipango said she had been encouraged by Whanganui's response to the Covid-19 pandemic as she and her staff work from home.
"I'm aware that the stats are relatively low in the Whanganui area, which is good, and the next two weeks will be critical," she said.
"We need to see if there will be a continual plateau of numbers, or whether there will be an increase after the prior two-week incubation period."
Hipango said she and her staff were working from home and her office had be fielding calls about the wage subsidy scheme, what is an essential service and how to do necessary travel.
She said she was concerned about isolated and elderly people, and people with reduced immunity and applauded all the essential workers who were keeping services going.
Hipango said the economic recovery was the next "big issue" for Whanganui.
"We've got to get the lockdown moving on, and a level of consistency around essential services," she said.
"Before anything else though, we need to keep listening to the reports from (Director-General of Health) Dr Ashley Bloomfield, who's been awesome, really."
Meanwhile, Hipango has been chosen by the National Party to contest the Whanganui seat again.
"This is the most significant national and world crisis since World War II and there is no politics or thought of election," she said.
A National Party spokesperson would not comment on the candidate selection process, or say whether others put their hat in the ring.
