[SIZE=7]Finnish PM apologises for staying out clubbing despite Covid exposure[/SIZE]
Sanna Marin says she should have checked guidance given to her after her foreign minister tested positive
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Agence France-Presse
Wed 8 Dec 2021 17.49 GMT
Finland’s prime minister has come under sustained criticism after it was revealed she stayed out dancing until the early hours on the weekend despite knowing she had been exposed to Covid-19.
Sanna Marin, 36, apologised on Monday after a gossip magazine published photos of her at a Helsinki nightclub on Saturday night until almost four in the morning, hours after her foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, tested positive for coronavirus.
“My husband and I … had been out to eat, been shopping in town, seen friends and also spent time [enjoying] the evening and nightlife,” the Social Democrat leader wrote on Facebook.
She said she was told by an official that the coronavirus guidelines did not require her to isolate, despite having been in contact with an infected person.
“I should have used better judgment and double-checked the guidance given to me. I am very sorry for not understanding that I needed to do that,” Marin wrote.
In a poll commissioned by the TV channel MTV3, two-thirds of respondents said Marin’s night out was a “serious mistake”.
Opposition parties criticised Marin for potentially breaking official Covid guidelines and for missing a later text message warning her to isolate.
The finance minister, Annika Saarikko, from the Centre party, a partner in the ruling coalition, stopped short of criticising Marin
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/08/finnish-pm-apologises-for-staying-out-clubbing-despite-covid-exposure