A woman has attempted to escape a managed isolation facility in Auckland after previously escaping and walking around the city for two hours.
Security staff caught the woman attempting to leave the Grand Millennium Hotel through a fire exit at approximately 1:00am on Friday.
It was then established that the woman also absconded on Thursday night. She was gone from 1:07am and 3.09am and CCTV footage shows her walking around the inner city.
The woman tested negative for COVID-19 on Friday morning and she is asymptomatic.
Police are making enquiries about her escape and say charges are likely.
The woman arrived from Dubai on October 7. She tested negative on October 1 in a pre-flight test and was cleared to fly. Her day three test is scheduled for Saturday.
Police say there is a permanent security presence outside her room to prevent her from escaping again.
Air Commodore Darryn Webb says usually all fire exits that are not able to be monitored by CCTV have a security guard present.
"Unfortunately, a local decision was taken which meant those guards were elsewhere that evening."
"While I'm confident that we have strong security measures in place, these hotels are not prisons and this individual has wilfully absconded once, and then attempted to repeat this the following night when she was caught by security."
"There are rules in place for every single returnee and we expect people to follow these during their 14 day stay in managed isolation. This is so they can return to the community safely, while ensuring the safety of all New Zealanders."
So far 14 people have absconded from New Zealand's managed isolation facilities. In total 60,000 have been through managed isolation and quarantine.
