New Zealand’s health minister apologized after he was demoted for breaking the country’s coronavirus lockdown to take his family to the beach.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern demoted David Clark to “the bottom of our Cabinet rankings” and stripped him of his role as associate finance minister in response to the revelation, although she said that his services are still needed during the pandemic.
“Under normal conditions, I would sack the minister of health. What he did was wrong, and there are no excuses,” Ardern said. “But, right now, my priority is our collective fight against COVID-19. We cannot afford massive disruption in the health sector or to our response.”
The remarks come after Clark admitted to the lockdown violations in a Tuesday statement. He said he provided the prime minister with “a complete picture” of his outdoor activity during the lockdown.
He said that, on the first weekend of the lockdown, he drove his family about 12 miles away from his house to a beach.
“This trip was a clear breach of the lockdown principles of staying local and not driving long distances to reach recreation spots,” Clark said.
“At a time when we are asking New Zealanders to make historic sacrifices, I’ve let the team down. I’ve been an idiot, and I understand why people will be angry with me,” he said.
New Zealand has one of the most stringent national quarantine measures in the world. The lockdown was imposed less than two weeks ago and, instead of being done gradually with the goal of “flattening the curve,” went further and completely shut down the country. That included banning swimming at beaches and hunting. Cases have been on the decline since the strict measures were put into place.
New Zealand has had more than 1,100 cases of the coronavirus and one death, according to the most recent count by Johns Hopkins University.
Worldwide, there have been more than 1.4 million cases and at least 81,800 deaths.