23 Jun 2020

Covid-19: New border restrictions, testing rules - latest details

From Checkpoint, 5:18 pm on 23 June 2020

The rules for managed isolation and quarantine may be tightened even further as the government works to restore public confidence in the border regime.

Ministers and officials are still dealing with the fallout from the two women allowed to leave managed isolation early under a compassionate exemption, without being tested.

In the past half hour Health Minister David Clark has announced that from today border staff and air crew on high risk routes like the United States will be now be required to self isolate and test negative for Covid-19 before they can fly again.

He says conversations are ongoing with other airlines. But questions remain over how many of the more than 2,000 people who have left isolation facilities were tested before their departure, including 55 who left early on compassionate grounds.

On Tuesday two new cases from men arriving from India and from the United States bring New Zealand's active tally to 10.

RNZ political editor Jane Patterson has the details.