New Zealand's MIQ booking system - which has been paused due to the Delta outbreak - will resume on Monday, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins has confirmed.
Hipkins and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield have revealed the latest on the Delta outbreak and the vaccine rollout.
Watch the update here:
There were 14 new community cases of Covid-19 reported today.
Announcing changes to the MIQ booking system today, Hipkins said 4000 rooms a fortnight will be released each fortnight between now and Christmas.
About 3000 of those rooms will be released from Monday.
Hipkins said anyone who enters the virtual 'lobby system' between 8am and 9am on Monday will have an equal chance of securing a room.
He asked people know their preferred flight route and select the correct date of arrival to avoid wasting MIQ rooms.
Monday's voucher release will not include red flights from Australia. Hipkins said a decision on the trans-Tasman bubble will be made next week, but his message to Australia was that he wouldn't be banking on the bubble reopening anytime soon.
Hipkins said the new MIQ system was not a 'first in, first served' model.
People will be randomly moved into a queue and when they get to the front they'll get to book a room.
Hipkins said the lobby was designed so that bots could not access it. But on third parties, he said it was not something he encourages but sometimes there were legitimate reasons for why someone may need to use them.
The local pressure on MIQ system had started to ease, Hipkins said.
"It isn't a silver bullet and we are fully expecting there will be more demand for rooms than rooms available."
He said pressure on MIQ will still be there until at least the end of this year.
More details about the 'lobby system' can be found on the official website here.
Vaccine update
Hipkins also said the first 250,000 doses from Denmark have arrived.
"There's nothing holding back our vaccination campaign."
Hipkins said community vaccination sites were allowing walk-ins and all of Auckland should have had the chance to get vaccinated by the end of the week.
