Covid 19 coronavirus: Social media criticism of family at centre of Auckland outbreak 'unhelpful' - Luxon

By RNZ

An Auckland National Party MP says it's "unhelpful" and "counterproductive" for people on social media to point fingers at the family caught up in the latest Covid-19 community outbreak.

Health officials have discovered that two - now-positive - cases of one family went to work and visited a vape store when they were supposed to be isolating at home.

The family also hosted a private home viewing.

Botany MP Christopher Luxon said would-be critics should focus their efforts on keeping the virus at bay.

"We don't know the full facts of the situation, that's really the Government and the health officials that will be aware of all of those.

"At this point what we should be doing is showing some compassion and some understanding, what we can focus on is what we can do and how we choose to respond to that."

Papatoetoe High School principal Vaughan Couillaut agrees, saying the family at the centre of Auckland's latest Covid-19 cluster needs to be left alone to recover.

He is also urging people to be more compassionate.

"Until you know somebody's story, until you've walked in their shoes, you should not be so quick to judge.

"Those people making negative comments on social media just need to stop because these people didn't get sick on purpose, this is not a deliberate effort by them to disadvantage everybody or be inconvenient."

- RNZ