22 Jun 2020

Demand for COVID isolation facilities spilling into the regions

From First Up, 5:53 am on 22 June 2020

The Government is planning to increase their number of isolation facilities, and are looking to the regions to do it. At an announcement yesterday, the Head of Managed Isolation and Quarantine, Air Commodore Digby Webb, said they were reaching capacity in their Auckland facilities. On Saturday, over 2-hundred recently returned travellers were re-directed at the last minute towards two Rotorua hotels when they had previously been told they would be isolating in Auckland. The Housing Minister Megan Woods said it had been the plan to use the two hotels in the coming week, but it was just brought forward to accommodate the higher-than-expected demand. Roughly 9-hundred people are expected to arrive in New Zealand over the coming few days, as the Government also looks to conduct a review into the isolation facilities, to check they're all safe. Two more cases of COVID-19 were announced yesterday, including one baby - both cases had recently returned from overseas. Joining me to talk about this is Professor Michael Baker.