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Joseph Johnson / Stuff
A worker at an MIQ facility in Christchruch (file photo).
New Zealand’s managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities could not handle a sustained outbreak of coronavirus cases in the community, a report to the Covid-19 minister shows.
The briefing for incoming minister Chris Hipkins was delivered in November, but the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has recently made it public.
Since the Auckland outbreak in August, new cases of Covid-19 have been isolated in a quarantine facility until they are no longer infectious.
But in the run-up to Christmas, New Zealand’s MIQ facility network was teeming with returning people, and spaces remain extremely limited through March.
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The report says the Ministry of Health’s position is that confirmed cases in the community should go to a quarantine facility, such as the Jet Park Hotel in Auckland, although there is a provision to isolate cases at home in exceptional circumstances.
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Officials have drafted advice on future work to address issues with the quarantine facility space should another outbreak occur in the community, in a recently released briefing for the Covid minister.
But if Covid-19 were to emerge in the community again, cases could continue to be quarantined only if the numbers remained “low,” the report says.
That “low” level is not specified.
“However, if community transmission were generalized and the number of cases acquired in the country needed to enter the MQF [managed quarantine facilities] increased significantly, an approach of accommodating all community cases in MQF is unlikely to be sustainable, ”says the report.
RICKY WILSON / THINGS
Senior Medical Officer Richard Chen and his colleagues at the Jet Park quarantine facility have assisted nearly every Covid-19 case from the Auckland August group (first published October 2020).
The next section on future work on the use of quarantine for community cases is written in its entirety from the briefing note.
Also very drafted is the advice to the minister on “information exchange and data flows to support MIQ”.
A section on that topic reads: “For MIQ to work effectively, we need to receive, use and share certain personal information with other government agencies and with other parts of MBIE, and have a clear legal authority for the transfer of this information.
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Details on MIQ-related information sharing issues are also heavily worded.
“For example, the collection and sharing of personal information to ensure accurate system-level reporting of personnel tests.”
The tips that follow, along with details about future work, are also written in their entirety.
A spokesperson for MBIE MIQ said that if New Zealand experiences a widespread Covid outbreak, it is unlikely that all patients could be housed in the existing quarantine facilities.
“However, at this stage New Zealand would probably be at a level three or four of blocking where people would be isolated at home.”
The country has 239 quarantine rooms for suspected or confirmed Covid cases and their close contacts, with the majority in Auckland (200) followed by Christchurch (29) and Wellington (10). Of these, just under half (114) are employed.
“There are contingency plans in place if we see an increase in positive cases returning to the country that require additional quarantine capacity,” the spokesperson said.
Any symptomatic person upon arrival is sent to a quarantine center.
New Zealand has 77 active cases of Covid, according to the latest information from the Ministry of Health available Tuesday.
