If people think the mask exemption download/printout from the Covid19 website is going to get them into the supermarket maskless they are in for a shock as was my adult daughter at Countdown Riverbank Lower Hutt last night.
She wasn’t approached at all and asked where her mask was when entering the supermarket. She was approached later, very definitely (i.e. not casually walking by), and asked by a Countdown employee walking through the aisles where her mask was. She replied that she had an exemption.
She wasn’t asked to show her exemption but was told that three Countdown stores have been closed due to people not wearing masks.
Less than ten minutes later two police officers arrived and asked to see her exemption. She had it on her phone and showed them. Their response? “Anyone can take a screenshot of that. It isn’t valid.” Her response was that she had downloaded it as instructed from the Ministry of Health official website as she has a genuine reason to have it (which she does) but that she wasn’t obliged to reveal it to them. Their response was to tell her that it was a mistake on the MoH website as it all changed two hours ago. This was at 7.30pm last night.
My daughter was then instructed to leave immediately after they demanded her contact details which she didn’t want to give them. Their response was that she had to go as they had been instructed to monitor this sort of behaviour.
She was shocked! Her comment to me when she arrived home was that it’s like we are now living in the Third Reich.
What a difference a day makes. On Thursday Countdown announced publicly that they will not be policing mask-wearing. What they really meant is that their staff will be calling the actual police to police mask-wearing.
Of course, I’m not an unreasonable person and it is possible that it could have been a member of the public who called the police but I do not think that is very likely, given the way this unfolded.
If this is how people with a genuine reason to have an exemption are treated I’m speechless. What will today and tomorrow bring?
Try getting a police response in 10 minutes to an actual crime! It appears that not wearing a mask at the supermarket is a top priority right now.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I feel strongly that the story had to be told as a police state is well and truly happening here.
#Not my New Zealand!
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