At a quarantine hotel in New Zealand, an employee has been dismissed after what officials briefed as an improper encounter with a person who should have been isolating.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said it was “unacceptable”.
People returning to New Zealand have to spend at least 14 days in isolation.
The country has been acclaimed as one of the world’s leaders in containing the pandemic. It has recorded 25 deaths since the beginning of the COVID-19.
Earlier this week, New Zealand registered its first case of Covid-19 outside of quarantine facilities in more than two months.
Mr. Hipkins at a press conference on Friday said that he had been informed of the incident at the hotel situated in Auckland shortly after it happened earlier this month and had called for a “thorough investigation”.
He said that he didn’t enquire specifically into the nature of the encounter, but the fact that it was a 20-minute encounter, it was long enough for him to be unacceptable.
The head of managed isolation and quarantine, Brigadier Jim Bliss, said that the employee had been sent home and told to self-isolate following the incident and was later fired while the returning traveler was given a formal written warning by police.
Both of them returned Covid-19 negative before and after the incident.
Mr. Hipkins said, “We are dealing with human beings. I cannot control the actions of every individual, but we absolutely make it clear what the rules are,”
