For more on the government's road map to reopening, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins joins Lisa Owen.
Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins told Checkpoint he has not ruled out checking people’s spending as a way to monitor people in the isolation at home trial.
“One of the things that we'll work through, and this will actually be part of the expression of interest process, are the enforcement measures,” he said.
“Digitally monitored ankle bracelets are at the sort of extreme end of that. There are other digital tools available, but what sort of monitoring would be around that? That will all be part of the discussions with those businesses.”
Professor Skegg had suggested monitoring eftpos receipts. Hipkins said: “I wouldn't rule that out either.”
“One of the things we'll be asking through the expression of interest process is for businesses to present us with an isolation plan. And one of the things that we're looking at there is, is it strong enough? Is the monitoring and enforcement strong enough?”
Hipkins suggested under the MIQ-at-home trial there could be a custom-made plan for the All Blacks.
“At the moment for sports teams who are training we actually have some specific arrangements for them that allow them to do some things while they're training while in MIQ that others aren't allowed to do.
“It could be that we do end up with a custom solution for them, that we negotiate with them.”
