95bFM ACT's Brooke van Velden: 'Prime Minister should apologise for ignoring public health advice to end MIQ'
21 April, 2022
Interview by Alex Wierzbicki, adapted by Jack Horsnell
The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Tāmaki Makaurau (pictured) is one of the many faciltiies used for managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ). Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Health officials told the government in November that managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) was "no longer justified," according to a leaked Ministry of Health memo.
The memo suggested the government might need to speed up its plan for a phased easing of border restrictions in the first quarter of 2022 as "the risk posed by international arrivals transmitting COVID-19 was no longer higher than the domestic transmission risk."
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield agreed to brief COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins and start a plan for making self-isolation the default requirement for international returnees.
But it was not until 2 March, 15 weeks later, before the government stopped MIQ for international travellers.
Deputy Leader of the ACT Party, Brooke van Velden, told Alex Wierzbicki on 95bFM's The Wire that the government ignoring public health advice is "an absolute disgrace."
"The Prime Minister should apologise to New Zealanders who were kept out of their own country on a false pretence that they were keeping other New Zealanders safe when the public health advice said it was no longer necessary."
The Deputy Leader also questioned the government's border closure to all visitors until October 2022.
"Tourist operators are wondering why they have to wait months to get tourists into the country and what is the public health advice holding us back."
However, Epidemiologist Michael Baker has stated that the delay in re-opening helped keep Omicron out until late January.
"MIQ had likely saved at least 10,000 lives, and it had been a fantastic tool for the first year to 18 months of the pandemic."
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