New Zealand’s former COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins has apologised to journalist Charlotte Bellis for incorrect comments made about her attempts to secure a MIQ (managed isolation and quarantine) spot during the height of lockdowns.
Bellis had tried to return to New Zealand after discovering she was pregnant in Qatar, where sex outside of marriage is illegal.
In a column published in the New Zealand Herald, Bellis described her struggle to return to her country in January, when all citizens would have been required to go through MIQ.
“On Jan. 31, I released a statement regarding Charlotte Bellis and her MIQ application,” Hipkins said in a statement on June 22. “I stated that ‘emergency allocation criteria includes a requirement to travel to New Zealand within the next 14 days.”…