Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand's managed isolation and quarantine system can continue to keep Covid-19 out of the NZ community, after a review found it was under "extreme stress".
Ardern told Morning Report the number of New Zealanders returning had spiked, as had the number of infections overseas.
"We've had a 73 percent increase in New Zealanders coming through the border since April, into quarantine. That has been for the precise reason because New Zealand and is in the position it is.
"Kiwis want to come home. They're facing working environments where they aren't seeing any change, lockdown continues and some of them are frankly afraid, so they're coming home.
"We do have the ability to manage that. What we need, though, is a system that gives us a bit more warning than just getting a passenger manifest, when the doors of the plane close."
