Covid-19 Response: Country Changes Level, But Families Still “Suspended by Pain”

The man who brought the government to court and earned the right to leave mandatory isolation to visit his dying father has now been forced to re-plan the funeral.

Upon arriving in New Zealand from the UK on April 23, Oliver Christiansen applied for an exemption from administered isolation, based on compassionate grounds, so that he could see his father for the last time.

The Ministry of Health, after confusing what was requested for the first time, repeatedly rejected the request.

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Christiansen brought the matter before the Auckland High Court, where he won the case causing a review of applications like his.

So far, eight of the 32 similar rejected requests have been revoked after their review, according to the Ministry of Health.

Yesterday, the Christiansen family bubble saw the Prime Minister’s announcement at 4 p.m., only to take another hit.

Despite information on the government’s Covid-19 website indicating at alert level 2 that up to 100 people could attend a funeral, Jacinda Ardern announced that only 10 people would be allowed.

It caused more tears for the bereaved family than planned for many more to attend the service.

“It is unbearable. Our family was in shock yesterday,” Christiansen told the Herald.

“We continue to be rejected at such a sensitive time.

“We feel like we’ve been through enough.”

The family had spent a week planning the funeral for Anthony Christiansen, an associate retired Superior Court judge. That has now been canceled.

Instead, they are now organizing a different service that will only be attended by 10 people.

Funerals, unlike happier occasions like weddings, cannot be delayed, Christiansen said.

“Along the way, we are going to have to dig deeper emotionally to plan another monument, we don’t even know when it will be,” he said.

“Does not allow closure.”

Christiansen knows that by the time a larger memorial service is held, he will be back with his young family in London. A perspective he can’t bear to think about, he said.

Her father lived a full life and deserved a monument where friends, family and colleagues in the legal profession could pay their respects, he added.

“Apart from his family, the law was his life.”

There should be more than pall bearers and direct family members there, he said.

Christiansen also knows that talking won’t change things in time for his family, but he hopes that his actions can help others again.

He feels that for families like his, the government’s “unreliable” decision-making “will suspend their pain” at the worst time.

“I hope there is pressure on them to reevaluate and show a little more respect for bereaved families, with a real sense of urgency.”

Ardern’s announcement yesterday that the meetings would be limited to 10 people, including for weddings or funerals, will be reviewed in two weeks.

During the briefing, he said the “limit of 10 people” was given “hard consideration” in light of the difficulties people have had with funerals and tangi, but took into account public safety.

Today he defended that position, saying that the Government had made the same difficult calls for other meetings where people like weddings and birthdays met.

“We know this is causing pain, but we have also tried to be consistent.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has completed the review of 32 requests made for a waiver of the isolation administered for compassionate reasons that had previously been rejected.

The original decision to deny those requests was changed for eight people.

They can now abandon managed isolation and have an agreed self-isolation plan, the ministry said.

Two people had already completed the solitary confinement at the time the ministry began reviewing the applications, while three applicants requested that the ministry stop the review process.

For 14 people, the original decision to deny their application was confirmed.

The ministry said it continues to work with the remaining five applicants.

• Covid19.govt.nz – The official government Covid-19 advisory website