Covid 19 coronavirus: security guards parked vehicles above the entrance of the parishioners

Security guards resorted to parking vehicles on the other side of a driveway to prevent a family related to the controversial Covid group from an Auckland church from disobeying the isolation and leaving the home.

At least one property in New Windsor was under permanent surveillance for approximately fifteen days, with a special security detail assigned to the suburban home 24 hours a day.

During this period, no one living at the address was allowed to leave or enter after locals said a resident repeatedly violated public health orders to stay home and isolate himself for 14 days.

Those living in the home were identified as close contacts of people infected with Covid in the controversial Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship congregation that initially refused to acknowledge the severity of the outbreak, with a large prayer meeting broken up by police during the lockdown throughout. Auckland.

Neighbors claimed that a family living in the church-linked New Windsor home had not only attended prayer meetings when it was illegal to do so, but had also met with other people in an infectious outbreak known as the grieving group. west of Auckland.

The last remaining infected person from that subgroup was finally declared recovered in the Covid daily update from the Ministry of Health yesterday.

Public health required the family to carry out two weeks of self-isolation. It was understood that the adults in the house did not test positive, but one child was showing signs of Covid-19.

People who live on the same street as the guarded suburban address said security personnel parked on the other side or in the driveway to block the entry or exit of cars.

The guards on duty had told them they were there to guard a home related to the Covid outbreak.

A spokesperson for the Health Ministry said that while they were unable to comment on individual cases, people who tested positive for Covid-19 in the community were generally asked to move to quarantine facilities, except in exceptional circumstances and where approved. an exemption.

To date there have been a small number of cases where exemptions have been granted.

In these cases, the Auckland Regional Public Health Service Medical Health Officer specified a plan, with strict criteria, to be followed by the person or whānau staying at home.

The plan included supportive arrangements for the family and 24/7 security.

“The latter is to ensure that unauthorized visitors do not enter the home, to provide a level of protection for the family, and to ensure that the exemption criteria are met,” the spokesperson said.

The Mt Roskill church became the epicenter of a Covid mini-group during the recent city outbreak that put the Auckland region in a month-long shutdown. It was later discovered that church members had held prayer meetings during the Alert Level 3 lockdown where gatherings were prohibited.

Health authorities were further hampered after parishioners refused to disclose cases of illness and to continue meeting when they were supposed to be in self-isolation.

At least 48 cases of Covid, more than a quarter of all those who fell ill from Covid in Auckland, have been linked to the congregation.

The evangelical church was criticized by Health Minister Chris Hipkins, who said that some people linked to the congregation were skeptical about the severity of the pandemic.

In September, Hipkins said officials were moving as quickly as possible to contain the subgroup, but “the repeated, deliberate and malicious dissemination of misinformation” threatened the region with blocking a move to alert level 1.

Auckland’s August group became New Zealand’s largest since Covid-19 arrived in February, with 179 people sick.

It has taken just under two months to remove Covid-19 from the community since Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced four cases of infection in a family from an unknown source on August 11.

Health authorities do not yet know how the first person, an Americold worker in his 50s, came into contact with the disease, but they suspect he was coming into contact with an infected person from abroad.

Three people died, including the prominent South Auckland physician, Dr. Joe Williams, and two brothers from the same family.