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Public health personnel never visited the home of a family in the Auckland Covid-19 group that was housing an undisclosed tenant.
The man, who worked as a door-to-door salesman in the city until Saturday, has now moved into the Jet Park quarantine facility after being previously isolated at the home where he boarded.
His employer, Chorus, said he contacted health authorities after learning of the man’s connection to the group on Sunday, the day after the M and N cases tested positive.
RYAN ANDERSON / Stuff
Nurse Cayla Jensen tests a woman at a Northcote testing center on February 28 in Auckland. (File photo)
However, the Health Ministry said the tenant had already identified himself to Healthline as a close family contact when his employer blew the whistle.
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Things understands that the family did not immediately inform the health authorities of the existence of the tenant.
KITCHEN / ROBERT THINGS
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that Auckland will lower a Covid-19 alert level on Sunday at 6am, while the rest of New Zealand will return to level 1.
This fact was tacitly acknowledged in a statement from the Ministry of Health supplied on Friday afternoon.
“Interviews can be stressful for people, and it is not uncommon for people to omit details and for them to come up in later interviews,” said a ministry spokeswoman.
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“These details were known to public health officials the next day when the person sought advice through Healthline.”
Then Things revealed the existence of the undisclosed tenant, questions were raised about how health personnel missed his presence on the property.
The ministry spokeswoman said public health officials never visited the property.
“Public health officials do not routinely visit the properties of infected people to conduct interviews and they did not visit this property; interviews are conducted over the phone.
“The contact tracing process involves not only proactively contacting people, but also posting locations of interest to allow people to self-identify and record their exposure.
“This is an example of how well the contact tracing system works.”
The week following the family’s positive tests, the tenant, who has returned a negative test, was left at home in isolation.
He is still asymptomatic.
However, “he has now chosen to move to the Jet Park facility for further support,” the spokeswoman said.
“We are confident that all appropriate public health measures have been taken.”
A Chorus spokeswoman said the man worked for the company that promotes door-to-door fiber services in Auckland, and was last working on Saturday.
“As soon as the individual became aware of any risk, he notified his employer, stopped participating in any field activities and immediately isolated himself,” the spokeswoman said.
“Chorus immediately notified the Auckland Ministry of Health, Regional Public Health and we, and his employer, are providing all the support that he and those agencies need.”
