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The National Party is questioning why New Zealand has been “so late” to bring pre-departure Covid-19 tests for some people returning to this country, and is calling for the measure to be expanded to cover all returnees. .
The government was not enthusiastic about the idea of introducing Covid-19 testing before departure when National proposed it during the election campaign.
But on Monday, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said that risk reduction measures were being worked on before departure, including testing people leaving the UK, the US and others. ” Higher Risk Countries “to New Zealand. The goal was to introduce the measures from mid-January.
Travelers coming to New Zealand already have to spend 14 days in controlled isolation when they arrive, and during that time they are tested for Covid-19.
READ MORE:
* The government warned against introducing Covid-19 tests before departure
* Covid-19: additional coronavirus testing for returnees from higher risk countries
* Covid-19: National calls on government to address border concerns about new strain
* The argument against pre-departure testing after fishermen test positive for Covid-19
* Covid-19: the Ministry of Health is considering pre-departure tests
The Government was working on the new measures “to anticipate what appears to be a worsening of the situation globally and, by doing so, we would reduce the risk of Covid-19 spreading during transit and entering our isolation facilities. managed, “Hipkins said.
Gareth fuller
The government is moving to introduce pre-departure Covid-19 testing for people traveling to New Zealand from “high-risk countries” like the UK and the US.
The new border protection measures were driven by “new virus variants and high disease rates in some countries.”
A new variant of the virus that has been spreading rapidly is being blamed by the UK government for tightening restrictions on the movement of people in many parts of that country since Boxing Day.
The latest analysis showed a strong correlation between the areas with the fastest increasing cases and the prevalence of the new strain of Covid-19, the UK government said.
There was no evidence to suggest that the new strain caused a higher death rate or that it affected vaccines and treatments.
Peter Summers / Getty Images
Waterloo train station in London. Movement restrictions have been tightened in the UK after an increase in cases of a recent variant of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus.
The action was said to have been necessary to limit the rise in hospital admissions and the rise in deaths. On Tuesday (NZT), England’s NHS said more than 20,400 people were being treated for the virus in hospital, which was up from the previous peak of about 19,000 in April.
Another new variant has been identified that is believed to be spreading faster than previous versions of the virus in South Africa, where it is believed to be driving an increase in Covid-19 infections.
In the US, there have been nearly 1.29 million new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the past week and 15,450 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. Those figures are lower than the worst week in that country, from December 13 to 19, when there were more than 1.5 million new cases and 18,375 deaths.
National Covid-19 recovery spokesperson Chris Bishop last called for his party for pre-departure testing just before Christmas. At the time, he said the government should introduce pre-departure testing in response to the variant that is spreading rapidly in the UK.
When National included pre-departure testing in its election policy in August, Hipkins wondered if it would reduce the number of people with Covid-19 arriving in New Zealand.
ROBERT KITCHEN / Things
National Covid-19 recovery spokesman Chris Bishop asked why the government had taken so long to require testing before the departure of people traveling to New Zealand.
“There is no evidence that necessarily reduces the number of positive cases we had in New Zealand in the first place,” Hipkins said.
He also said there were logistical challenges to testing travelers before departure, including various test turnaround times in other countries.
“There is a risk that people will contract the infection while in transit, and that journey can, at this time, with the limited number of flights available, that people can be in transit for quite some time,” he said.
Another time National pushed for pre-departure tests was in early October after 10 people, arriving from India on the same flight, tested positive for Covid-19 in late September. A month earlier, 17 people on a flight tested positive after traveling from India.
At the time, National Health Spokesperson Dr. Shane Reti said the pre-departure tests would effectively push the New Zealand border outward. “Labor cannot allow the bloodthirsty mentality to get in the way of strengthening our border,” he said.
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British Airways Boeing 777 takes off from London Heathrow Airport. Only a small number of people come to New Zealand from the UK because many stopover countries along the route do not allow UK people to enter.
Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles questioned the value of pre-departure testing after a Covid-19 outbreak among fishermen at a Christchurch hotel was used as a managed isolation and quarantine facility, following its arrival from Russia and Ukraine.
The fishermen had spent two weeks in self-isolation and were tested for Covid-19 before boarding their flight to New Zealand.
Wiles said someone who tests negative for Covid-19 could still be incubating the virus.
It was also critical after Monday’s announcement that pre-departure tests would be introduced in some countries.
“The problem with requiring a test is where the test is done, how available is it to get a test, and how reliable are the tests that people get … and then there’s the issue of who can pay for the test,” Wiles he told RNZ.
“There is no guarantee that when you test negative, it will not be positive on the way to the airport or on the plane.”
After Hipkins’ announcement on Monday, Bishop said that now that the government had “recognized” the pre-departure tests added to New Zealand’s border protection, it needed to extend them to all returning to this country.
Joseph Johnson / Stuff
Problems with pre-departure testing for Covid-19 were highlighted by an outbreak at an isolation and quarantine facility run in Christchurch among overseas fishermen who were screened for the disease before leaving for New Zealand.
“The argument put forward by the government against the pre-departure testing was not supported by many epidemiologists and the announcement (on Monday) not only vindicates that, but raises the question of why we got to this position so late.” Bishop said.
Hipkins said a problem for those working on the pre-departure test measure was that few people came to New Zealand from the UK.
“One of the problems we have at the moment is that it is very difficult to get from the UK to New Zealand … because a lot of those intermediary countries, where people stopped on the way, don’t carry passengers from the UK. “
But although few people were arriving from the UK now, “we want to be prepared when those routes are reopened.”
Passengers would have to pay heavily for pre-departure tests and the government was working with airlines on logistical issues.
“Anyone traveling internationally at this time has to accept that along the way they are likely to be tested multiple times because some of the transit points where they stop en route may also have testing requirements,” Bishop said.
“So there will be a lot of testing for people who are in transit during this particular time.”
