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Workers at managed quarantine facilities, such as the Auckland Jet Park Hotel, where confirmed COVID-19 cases are taken, as well as those who transport them there, are required to be tested every seven days as per the order.
Other border workers will need to be tested every two weeks, including staff at managed isolation hotels where travelers not known to have COVID-19 are staying, as well as dock workers and airport staff, although the aircrew is exempt.
Auckland University professor Des Gorman, a public health expert, said the new rules are a “very good idea”, but they can’t understand the exemption for the airline’s crew.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the airline’s crew is currently covered by a testing regime, but the government is working to strengthen it.
“I hope that in the first part of this week we will finally resolve some of those conversations with Air New Zealand,” Ardern told The AM Show on Monday.
“They refer, for example, to how we treat those who only deal with cargo versus those who deal with international passengers.”
The government came under heavy pressure during August after Newshub revealed that more than 60 percent of all border workers in Auckland had never been tested in the week before the last outbreak.
That was despite a new testing strategy on June 23 that outlined the prioritization of testing of border workers and airline personnel, who were supposed to undergo “regular health checks and asymptomatic tests.”
The health order will ensure that the directive is applied.
“We’ve had testing since July in those areas, but this is a much more rigorous regimen that is backed by a health order, which means we have people on a rotating basis in those high-risk jobs that are being tested even though they are asymptomatic.” . Ardern said.
“There will of course be thousands of people entering our port who have no contact with anyone coming from abroad, so we just make sure that we target those we should attack and that is what our order does. of health. . “
Collins suggested that the failure to comply with the original border testing directive was ironic given that the government has an elimination strategy for COVID-19.
“It doesn’t make sense to say that you are going to have an elimination strategy if you are not actually meeting the actual requirements,” he said.
ACT leader David Seymour said the government has not kept its promise to act “tough and early” in its response to the virus outbreak.
“Testing of personnel facing the border in particular has been deficient. The health minister said in June that there would be ‘asymptomatic testing for all workers facing the border.’ But it never happened,” he said.
Ardern said last month that testing of border personnel “did not meet” the cabinet’s expectations, but Newshub revealed that the government was informed that testing all border personnel was not a viable option, advice the health minister admitted. not have read.
The Health Ministry says the new border testing order is “complementary” to strict infection prevention and control measures, including physical distancing and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and daily health checks.
The Health Ministry reported four new COVID-19 cases on Monday, two in the community linked to the Auckland group and two in a managed isolation facility.
The total number of active cases in New Zealand is 118, of which 41 are imported cases in managed isolation facilities and 77 are community cases.
