Finland PM says ‘sorry’ for staying out clubbing after Covid exposure
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The PM—who has received two doses of COVID-19 shots—initially defended her actions, saying she had followed the advice of her Secretary of State
Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin has apologised for going clubbing after coming into contact with a COVID-19 positive patient.
Marin had been drawing flak after it emerged that she had gone out on Saturday hours after her foreign minister Pekka Haavisto tested positive for the virus.
According to Finland’s Covid guidelines, fully vaccinated citizens are not required to self-isolate if they come into contact with a positive person, but it does advise citizens to avoid social contact and undergo testing.
Critiques had slammed the 36-year-old over after a local magazine had published photos of the prime minister attending a Helsinki nightclub with friends on Saturday.
The PM—who has received two doses of COVID-19 shots—initially defended her actions, saying she had followed the advice of her Secretary of State.
But in a post on Facebook on Monday, she apologised for her error of judgment and admitted she should have double-checked the measures.
“I should have used better judgment on Saturday evening and checked the instructions I had received a second time,” Marin said, adding that different advice had been sent to her official work telephone.
“For not realising that this was not the way to act, I am very sorry,” she stated.
The Social Democrat leader has since tested negative for COVID-19.
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The Seiska magazine said, while citing witnesses, that she stayed at the club until 4 am.
Marin became the world's youngest prime minister when she elected to lead a centre-left coalition with four other parties in 2019.
Since September, infections have been creeping ever higher, with increases of more than 1,000 a day for weeks, reports BBC.
The country has also recorded eight cases of the new Omicron variant, which experts fear may be more transmissible and evade some immunity to Covid.
(With inputs from agencies)