A Levin woman who was put into isolation after she sat behind an Australian man diagnosed with the Covid-19 coronavirus on a flight to New Zealand has urged people to not take risks by exposing others.
The man, in his 60s, travelled arrived in Wellington from Brisbane at 12.05am on March 14 on flight Air NZ 828.
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He had no symptoms of Covid-19, but had been tested for it and was awaiting his results when he made the decision to fly - a decision which was strongly criticised by the Ministry of Health.
Joanne Heberley was sitting right behind him, she believes, and the morning after arrived she was called by the Ministry to tell her she had to enter isolation.
"We all landed in Wellington - I was with my daughter and my son-in-law and their baby, and we had the car parked long term, so we just got in the car and drove home," Ms Heberley said.
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Ms Heberley said she had been on a nine-day holiday in Australia, and thought it would be back to normal after coming home.
"It's sort of changed completely - but it's not all bad - the house is getting cleaned!
"I'll be knitting and sewing and I'll play Rummikub on my own, I'll be doing gardening and I'll be doing everything in this house to get it up to date."
Ms Heberley is a carer for her mother, who lives across from her, and said that her mother was "not happy" about being unable to receive her usual care after nine days away.
She was receiving support from her church - Levin Baptist - who had offered to deliver her meals and groceries, and "whatever we need".
Ms Heberley said while she can understand why people might think it's OK to take the risk the Australian man did, she hopes it will be a lesson that actions like that can have far reaching consequences.
"It's hard - it's sad for us and it's sad for everyone around us," Ms Heberley said.
"It's sad for him and his family as well - but maybe he just made the wrong choice.
"Maybe people will learn now - if you're waiting for results, stay where you are.
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"Please think of other people, because it does have a lot of consequences - not just one or two - this has affected an awful lot of people.
"If you think you're infected, or if you think you've been with people who were - isolate yourself."
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