Covid 19 coronavirus: National calls on government to address concerns over UK’s new strain

By RNZ

National says the government must address concerns about a new strain of Covid-19 in the UK, which is believed to be up to 70 percent more contagious.

More than 40 countries have banned arrivals to the UK due to the new variant of the coronavirus there.

To date, Great Britain has detected another variant in the contacts of cases that have traveled from South Africa.

Public health experts, including Professors Nick Wilson and Michael Baker, have called for stricter border measures in response.

The government has rejected several requests from RNZ for an interview this week.

In a statement, a spokesman said they were in communication with UK health authorities and “monitoring the situation closely”.

“The Ministry of Health is confident that the current use of PPE, the testing strategy and the 14-day administered isolation for all arrivals from New Zealand is appropriate. The ministry continues to review these tools in light of any new evidence. and emerging.

“The Ministry of Health has always said constantly that our most important protection at the border is 14 days of isolation and / or quarantine, along with daily symptom checks. [and testing if symptomatic].

“We are also confident that our current PCR tests will detect this and any new strains,” the statement said.

But National Covid-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop said at a time of great public concern that that was not good enough.

“Christmas is a time of relaxation and holidays, but it is also a time when we must not become complacent, because there will be people coming to New Zealand every day, we must absolutely make sure that our border is secure.

“People want to know that the border is secure not only in the days leading up to Christmas, but also during the Christmas holidays, so I would expect more responses from the government in the coming days,” he said.

Bishop said the government must respond to the new tension by introducing pre-departure tests for arrivals from the UK.

“No one is saying it is a silver bullet, it is not something that is going to magically eliminate Covid overnight, but we believe that it is an important part of a set of tools that can be used to ensure that our response in the border is as good as possible.

Bishop said the situation in the UK is another example of why the government should introduce a “traffic light system” to rate the risk of arriving travelers.

“That would allow for a much more intensive regimen for people coming from the UK, for example, compared to people from Australia. That’s what people like Professor Baker and others have been asking for, and I think it really is time to consider implementing that.. “