More Covid and a broken down plane as Ardern arrives in Washington
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- 31 May 2022
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The prime minister’s US trade tour has been hit with yet another case of Covid-19 as Jacinda Ardern arrives in Washington DC.
1News has reported an official in the delegation returned a positive PCR test result this morning. They do not have any Covid symptoms and are continuing to return negative rapid tests, but they are now in isolation.
It comes just a day out from the long-awaited White House meeting between Ardern and president Joe Biden. That will take place overnight (NZ time) after being pushed to the end of the tour. Three members of the PM’s delegation have now tested positive for Covid-19 while in the United States, including Ardern’s chief press secretary who remains in isolation in San Francisco.
Meanwhile, the oft-grounded New Zealand Air Force Boeing that has carried the delegation around the US has broken down after landing in Washington DC. The Herald’s Claire Trevett said the plane was due to take Ardern back to San Francisco tomorrow ahead of her trip home, but she will now travel the entire route commercially.
Thankfully, Washington DC is the last official date of the tour – and where the Biden face-to-face will take place – meaning no meetings have to be cancelled.
Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark, who visited the Oval Office for two presidential meetings, told The Spinoff’s Toby Manhire that tomorrow’s meeting will be highly choreographed. “You don’t wing these meetings. It’s not an informal chat,” she said. “What one says needs to be well scripted in advance to be of maximum value to New Zealand.” Read More…
