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Home / New Zealand

Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Infected woman stuck at home with sick parents

By Belinda Feek
Reporter·NZ Herald·
24 Oct, 2021 04:00 PM5 mins to read

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There are 80 new cases of Covid-19 in the community today, 77 in Auckland, two in the Waikato and one in Northland. Video / NZ Herald

A Covid-positive North Shore woman is worried for the health of her family as she's still waiting for a transfer to managed isolation, four days after being diagnosed with the virus.

The woman, who wants to only be known as Krystle, fears she could spread the virus to her immune-compromised mother, who has cancer and chronic inflammatory lung disease and is attached to an oxygen machine 18 hours a day.

Krystle was given her test result on ​Thursday morning and told authorities about her family's situation, including her mother's ill health which has seen her hospitalised 13 times this year - three while in lockdown.

While she lives in a cabin on the property with her partner Thomas, who is fully vaccinated and returned negative results, they do have to go inside the house to use the facilities.

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She said her parents, who are both fully vaccinated, were tested on Friday and were awaiting their results but every moment she remains at the property is time they are potentially at risk.

"My Mum and Dad are high risk; my Mum is a cancer patient and has COPD and my Dad has had a heart attack. The Ministry of Health know all this and I'm still, even currently at this moment, with them.

"COPD [patients] are so high risk for Covid you would think they'd be a bit more vigilant and get me out of here, but they've not done anything."

Her frustrations come as Orewa MP Mark Mitchell is calling for two people in self-isolation to be urgently moved in MIQ.

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He said his friend picked up a woman who was dumped on the side of road by an agitated man on Thursday and took her to the local police station to get help, only to receive a phone call soon after saying the couple were both positive and should have been self-isolating at home.

"I have been working solidly since Thursday to have them both taken into managed isolation," he wrote on Facebook.

"They have already breached the rules and have put other people at risk. In my view, they have forfeited the right to home isolation."

Krystle, who was due to get her second vaccination next week, has likened getting into managed isolation as Covid patient to those that are waiting to get into MIQ from overseas.

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"I'm still sitting here waiting to be transferred to a MIQ knowing that my parents are high risk. I just don't understand how the health care system can tell us that they're doing the best to control the virus when I'm in a household of four people and I'm still here.

"Yesterday morning they rung to check on my symptoms ... but they don't have any control over getting me to MIQ. It's just ridiculous. What the prime minister portrays on the news and what happens in private is absolute bull****."

On top of the stress waiting to get into MIQ she's had to deal with all her symptoms which she described as a "rollercoaster" and there's barely been a part of her body that hasn't been affected.

"From day one I've had stomach cramps. I've had high fever, runny nose, coughing, sneezing, headaches, cold sweats.

"At the moment I'm alright I've got a little bit of fever and my nose is blocked, but every couple of hours you get a different symptom. It's so weird.

"It's like having 10 different viruses in one I would say."

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When she has to go inside, she wears two masks and gloves and sterilises all surfaces she touches inside.

"It just doesn't make any sense for me ... imagine if my mother caught Covid what would happen to her? She would die. There's no way her body would fight it. I can't believe I'm still here it."

Krystle's father told the Herald he was unimpressed with the process and said Auckland should have been put into a hard lockdown a couple of weeks ago, "that way we wouldn't all be in this mess".

"That's just a bloody disaster, the whole thing. It's just putting us at risk. And Krystle isn't getting the proper treatment that she's supposed to get, and if this is a priority I'd hate to think what happens to people who aren't a priority."

He'd been told there were 150 people isolating at home in similar circumstances.

"We can't start our 14 days of isolation until Krystle gets put into MIQ ... and that's just wrong, that's crazy."

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He'd been told they were being treated as a priority, "but that's working well isn't it", he said.

The Ministry of Health didn't respond to questions about Krystle's case but an MIQ spokesperson said as of 8am on Sunday October 24, there were 363 quarantine rooms available - including 238 in Auckland.

The spokesperson said Auckland Regional Public Health Service was responsible for referring the cases to local health officials who then managed their move to quarantine facilities.

Epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker said while he couldn't comment on specific cases, issues around getting managed isolation could continue to pop up for some time as Auckland enters its suppression phase and waits for changes around overseas travellers isolating at home.

He understood that one reason for delays in getting into MIQ was the transport itself as it could often get "quite saturated".

In the meantime, he says it's inevitable that as the number of cases in Auckland increases, so too will the number of people being isolated at home.

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"Now we will see a lot more triaging of people based on their circumstances as to whether they are put into MIQ or just isolating or quarantined at home."

Previously, in the elimination phase, every case and sometimes the whole household would be put into MIQ but with the Government focusing on its transition into suppression of Covid, that would change.

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