David Clark, New Zealand’s health minister, has resigned after recent departmental mistakes and personal mistakes in addressing the corona crisis. The country has been faced with new infections in recent weeks after the growth in the number of cases has dropped to zero last month.
“It has become clear to me that my staying on will negatively impact the government’s approach to Covid-19 and the global pandemic,” he said at a news conference. Clark said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has accepted his resignation.
Things went wrong in mid-June when two New Zealand sisters had returned from Britain to visit a dying parent. They were allowed to leave mandatory quarantine when they had not been tested. Later it turned out that they had the coronavirus, so New Zealand had to report infections for the first time in 24 days. The authorities have now identified 320 people with whom the women have had contact. Prime Minister Ardern called the mistake unacceptable.
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