12 Nov 2021

Covid-19: Chris Bishop on self-isolation

From Morning Report, 7:24 am on 12 November 2021

National Party Covid-19 spokesperson Chris Bishop wants travellers coming into New Zealand to be able to skip MIQ, freeing up the spaces for people in the community with Covid-19 to isolate.

It comes as the length of stay for returnees arriving in New Zealand is shortened to seven days, down from 14.

Epidemiologist Michael Baker welcomed the changes but said any length of stay is now redundant for people planning on heading into Auckland.

Bishop agreed and said the current way the system is running is insufficient.

"We should be using those in MIQ spots, not for fully vaccinated travellers with no Covid, but for people with Covid.

"Not everyone who's got COVID needs to go into an MIQ, but the system is completely deranged at the moment. It's a complete perversion of priorities, and we need to change it."

Bishop said the National Party's policy was to let fully vaccinated travellers skip the MIQ queue.

"If you're fully vaccinated without a without Covid, so you've passed a negative pre-departure test, and you come from a low risk jurisdiction like Queensland, for example, which has minimal amounts of Covid, in fact none probably, then you would just go straight into the community if you take a test on arrival as well.

"For people who come from jurisdictions with Covid, say South Wales and the UK, you would do a week's home self-isolation when you enter New Zealand but key point is to skip the MIQ, free up those spaces for people who actually have Covid, still do a week's self-isolation for people who may potentially carry the virus even despite those checks.

He said the chance of people passing testing positive for Covid-19 after seven days isolation is not zero, but it is low.

Morning Report invited Director-General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield onto the programme on Friday, but he has declined all of our interview requests this week.

Joint Head of MIQ Brigadier Rose King also declined to come onto the programme.

Morning Report's calls this morning to the Minister for Covid-19 Response, Chris Hipkins, have gone unanswered.