Patrick Gower has tested negative for COVID-19 and can leave self-isolation after he visited the same supermarket as New Zealand's latest confirmed case.
On Wednesday morning Gower shopped at the same Auckland supermarket as a COVID-19 positive man who escaped managed isolation - he even used the same checkout.
The escapee visited on Tuesday evening after he broke isolation protocol by leaving Auckland's Stamford Plaza to visit Countdown Victoria St in the CBD. He returned a positive COVID-19 test on Wednesday morning.
Gower visited the Countdown on Wednesday morning before the news of the man's escape had broken.
He says the supermarket was "strangely empty" but no one told him the escapee had wandered through the aisles the night before.
"I get on with my day, then of course at 1pm, bang, the news comes out that someone with COVID-19 had been wandering through there and gone through the very same checkout I'd just gone through," he said.
Countdown says the store had been fully cleaned following the man's visit, and had only opened for three minutes "in error". In a statement to Newshub on Thursday Countdown's general manager Kiri Hannifin says the store was not told to close or clean by authorities but did so for "peace of mind".
"Once the deep clean was completed, the store opened, in error, from 10.29 to 10.32am," she said.
"We had actually decided to close the store for the entire day to support our team.[The store] opened for three minutes in error but had already been comprehensively cleaned at this point. There was no risk to Patrick Gower or the 10 other customers who entered the store at that time."
Upon discovering he had been in the same place as the positive escapee, Gower immediately rang Healthline and entered self-isolation.
He received a negative result on Thursday morning.
