As more people talk about the difficulties they face in managed isolation at hotels around Auckland and Rotorua, returned expat Kate Catalinac says they should stop complaining.
She spoke to Jesse Mulligan about the upside of isolation and why people who are allowed through our borders should be more grateful they have been allowed to come back home.
Kate Catalinac Photo: Facebook with permission
Kate has returned from San Francisco and is staying at the Waipuna Hotel and Conference Centre in Auckland.
She returned to New Zealand because she wanted to see her family, she says.
“Like the hundreds and thousands of other very lucky New Zealanders I’ve come back because I want to see my family.
“I was sheltering in place in San Francisco for 85 days and that was about enough and so I’ve been lucky enough to take part in the managed isolation here.”
She is on a “completely different page” to people complaining about quarantine facilities, she says.
“I am floored by the conditions. I pay a lot of money in San Francisco for people to bring me up meals and do my laundry. We’re essentially being treated like celebrities.
“We’ve got our own security, I’ve just had my temperature taken, I’ve already had two meals today. At 2 o’ clock I can order my daily allocation of wine.”
She feels incredibly lucky, she says.
“You think about what you’d have to be doing in your normal life for someone to be paying for you to be in a hotel room for two weeks, you’re either travelling for work or having a really long affair.”
Kate says the care she and her fellow guests have received has been “completely amazing.”
“The ministry of health has been completely amazing, they were dancing yesterday for a small child who was nervous about having the swab test. I was blown away.
“People are feeling really unstable and my heart goes out to them, I would also say that we could not be better positioned to be looking after people in this country in terms of the managed isolation. There’s 24-hour nurse care, they’ve made it extremely clear that there’s always someone to speak to if you’re feeling in anyway sad or negative or outside of yourself there’s always someone to speak to.
“I’ve lived in America for the last almost 12 years where healthcare is a dumpster fire, so these things feel very well-considered and sincere to me.”
Kate is six days into her quarantine period and says the people in her hotel are abiding by the rules.
“Just like any other group, when hundreds and hundreds of people are together you’ll get some bad apples but I think in the main, people are wearing masks, keeping t heir distance and being very well behaved.”
In the mean time she is making the most of her enforced confinement.
“Three meals a day, two snacks, the wifi’s slow but the days are fast.”
Kate's is blogging about her quarantine here.
