One month down, eleven more to go

And first into the Sick Phoque Club for 2021 is Dilip Rupa, an Auckland café owner who is the first person to be prosecuted for not displaying an official Covid Tracer app QR code. Rupa, owner of Rupa’s Café, received several visits from WorkSafe and police last year, educating him about the need for a QR code to be displayed. WorkSafe says Rupa was first warned in September 2020. Over the next month, he was sent subsequent letters, along with $600 worth of fines. Rupa claimed in videos uploaded online that he did not have the QR code because he had a manual sign in book and another alternative method. TOUGH TITTIES DILIP - when businesses refuse to display the QR codes, they’re not only flouting the law but they’re letting New Zealanders down. One of the more transmissible mutant strains currently doing the rounds (more specifically, the South African strain) was leaked into the community and three people in the north of the country have tested positive so far. If one of those made it to Rupa's, then there's no way to find out who else was there at the time.