The Masked Singer: Jackie O braces for double quarantine
The Masked Singer judge Jackie O Henderson has hit out at strict quarantine measures which has forced her to undergo four weeks of quarantine following an outbreak of coronavirus cases linked to the show.
Confidential
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The Masked Singer judge Jackie O Henderson is looking at a further three-and-a-half weeks in quarantine before she sees her young daughter after COVID-19 shut down the reality show.
Henderson was scheduled to fly home to Sydney earlier this week but was forced into quarantine in Melbourne after a cluster of coronavirus cases broke out during filming of the reality TV show. The number of infections linked to the program has grown to 16.
She doesn’t want preferential treatment but has questioned the fact she has to do two stints of quarantine to come home to Sydney from where she has been shooting in Melbourne.
“It’s f***ed. just want to see my baby girl (Kitty), far out,” Henderson told listeners of her hit KIIS FM breakfast show.
“I can’t get out of Melbourne. I am going to be stuck here for the rest of my life. I have to do 14 days quarantine in my room here and then do another 14 days when I get to Sydney. It is ridiculous.”
Henderson, along with fellow judges Dave Hughes, Urzila Carlson and Dannii Minogue, and 285 production staff are in quarantine because of the outbreak.
“It is a cluster,” Henderson said but questioned the strict quarantine rules between Australian states. “I can understand because they do say with quarantining you do need that 10 days for it to show up right because sometimes symptoms don’t show up after 10 days. So I am okay with that, I don’t mind doing the quarantine, it just seems weird to do a double quarantine though because at the end of this quarantine I am going to be tested and obviously if I am negative then I definitely don’t have it.”
Henderson said she has no issues with the quarantine itself but wondered why she needed to do it twice.
“I know this is red tape that I won’t be able to cut through it is just that each state is like its own country.”
The Masked Singer was originally scheduled to wrap its season with a grand finale this weekend. That episode was supposed to have been filmed last Saturday. Production initially learnt hours before that episode was to be filmed of seven coronavirus cases involving crew and action was taken immediately.
Yesterday, broadcaster Channel 10 confirmed the number of cases had grown to 16.
“All members of The Masked Singer production will undergo a 14-day period of self-quarantine as advised by the Department of Health and Human Services. All production crew will be adhering to this instruction,” a statement read. “The health and safety of the community, and our staff and production partners remains our number one priority. Network 10 is providing all crew with all the support and assistance possible. We would like to thank the Victorian Government and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services for their continued support and assistance during this time. We continue to work closely with the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services.”