Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin has apologized for going out to a nightclub after coming into contact with Covid-infected person in her office, citing a misunderstanding of the rules as the cause of her mishap.
In a lengthy explanation posted on Facebook on Monday, Marin, 36, explained that she was aware of her foreign secretary Pekka Haavisto’s positive Covid-19 test but, being fully vaccinated, she enjoyed a Saturday night out with her husband and friends.
Marin said the next day she discovered a text message that had been sent to her work phone recommending she avoid social contact and order a test. Though her own test result was negative, the PM admitted that she could have made a better judgment on Saturday.
“I’m really sorry for not understanding I had to do this,” Marin wrote.
Fully-vaccinated people in Finland are not required to self-isolate after being exposed to a Covid-positive person, but they are advised to avoid social contact until they get a negative test result – something many said Marin should have done to set an example.
Marin’s statement followed backlash from opposition and social media users reacting to photos of her captured during the night out, taken hours after her minister’s diagnosis had been confirmed.
Many also remained unconvinced by her apologies, with one commenter wondering why “a person at that level needs guidance on something as simple as that” and adding that common sense has become “a disappearing natural resource.”
