A visitor to an Auckland, New Zealand, hospital ward allegedly had sex with a patient behind a curtain, according to a formal complaint filed by another patient who said he witnessed the incident. When New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was asked by a reporter about whether she considered it “a high-risk activity in the current climate,”she made a face. “I would say generally, regardless of the COVID status, that kind of thing shouldn’t generally be a part of visiting hours—I would’ve thought,” she said, grimacing.
New Zealand outlet 1 News reported that the witness, identified as “Kevin,” said he saw the visitor go behind a curtain and that “it was pretty obvious what was happening in there.” Staggered, in his words, he reported the incident to hospital staff, who stepped in. “There was a view that, ‘Hey, don’t be a spoilsport,’” he said, “but it was the wider COVID question that I was raising.” More generally, after an outcry from doctors and nurses at the swelling number of visitors allowed into hospitals on Thursday, visitation rules will be tightened across Auckland.
