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The government is providing an update on its response to the Covid-19 epidemic and the management of isolation facilities for people returning to the country.
Watch the update here at 12.30pm:
The government is looking at tightening security and bringing in police guards after a 32-year-old man who was later found to have Covid-19 yesterday left an isolation hotel in Auckland and was outside the facility for 70 minutes.
It is the second escape from isolation; on Saturday a woman at the Pullman Hotel got out by climbing over a fence and absconded for about two hours before being found nearby.
Rules at isolation hotels are more relaxed than for quarantine facilities, but Public Health Professor Michael Baker is now calling for new arrivals to be confined to their rooms until their compulsory Covid-19 test on about day three comes back negative.
See all RNZ coverage of Covid-19
The minister in charge of managed isolation facilities, Megan Woods, has already signalled there could be more police involvement in managing returnees after the two escapes.
The minister in charge of quarantine and isolation facilities, Megan Woods, Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Air Commodore Darryn Webb are giving an update on the situation.