On August 23, MBIE (NZ Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) made it official that Managed Isolation and Quarantine is temporarily pausing the release and re-release of rooms on the Managed Isolation Allocation System due to the current COVID-19 outbreak.
This included cancelled vouchers that are normally automatically re-released back into the system and that no rooms will be available to book for a few days.
It has already been a week but looking at the current number of positive Covid 19 delta variant cases in New Zealand which has surpassed 500, there seems to be no indication when these ‘few days’ are likely to be over.
This news has caused nervousness and tension to thousands of Kiwis who either want to travel back to New Zealand or those who wish to travel from New Zealand and then return.
Dr Arushi Kaura, a General Practitioner at The Holistic Medical Centre in Auckland and mother of two two sons, is also feeling the pressure of this MIQ pause. Dr Kaura, who hails from Punjab, India, says, "One of my sons, Neil, is in India since December 2019 and is staying with my parents. I want to get him back to New Zealand, but the MIQ debacle has ruined all my plans.
“I had been searching for a MIQ slot for months now but have had no luck. And now this pause has come about. It is stressful that I can neither go to India to get him nor someone can come to drop him as MIQ seems to be the biggest challenge."
She adds, “I am a doctor and have been working relentlessly during this current lockdown. I am doing all my bit to serve New Zealand, but I am personally suffering due to this whole MIQ system or, I must say, lack of it.”
NZ permanent resident Parmeet Kaur who is currently in India for the past few months says, “Both my parents were diagnosed with cancer, and I came to India to be with them in March this year. Fortunately, their health is stable now and I want to come back to New Zealand where I have my work commitment as well as family.
“I had been trying to secure a MIQ voucher for the past few weeks but all in vain and now with this pause, all my hopes of returning to New Zealand are gone. I hope things get better and I can come back to my home.”
Calling the situation “sad and heartbreaking”, Andrea Palomec Urrea, a member of Grounded Kiwis, a network of New Zealanders seeking to change the Managed Isolation and Quarantine system, wrote on Facebook, “This situation is heartbreaking and is making me mentally ill and tired. I used to respect and admire the way that Jacinda led the country. Even last year, when Covid started I would compare it to the rest of the world, and I would be proud of the way she was managing the whole situation.
“The elimination strategy is unrealistic now. Being here, having family abroad…the failure system of MIQ have completely changed my point of view of her.”
Since the announcement of the pause, the MIQ contact centre is flooded with calls of people filled with nervousness and frustration. One of the contact centre executives Nick, explained, “It is a stressful situation for many who want to travel to NZ. We are getting an increased number of calls from people asking us to tell them when this pause will be lifted. We understand the anxiety but we can only ask them to wait and watch for the government's announcement.”
The current community outbreak means MIQ needs to carefully manage capacity as community members enter facilities to quarantine. Brigadier Rose King, Joint Head of MIQ, says, “MIQ is not only an important part of our border measures to keep COVID-19 out of New Zealand - in community outbreaks such as this, we now also have a role to play in protecting the rest of New Zealand from COVID-19 spreading wider in the community.
“MIQ has been making changes to the configuration of our facilities in Auckland and elsewhere in response to the community outbreak, at the same time as we are continuing to provide for international returnees. These changes are enabling people in the community who are positive cases to enter quarantine facilities, and close contacts of positive community cases that are not able to isolate at home, to go into managed isolation facilities.”
Giving details about the quarantine facilities, King adds, “Jet Park in Auckland continues to be used for positive community cases and positive border cases, and Novotel and Ibis Ellerslie are now also being used as a quarantine facility. The Holiday Inn Auckland Airport is being used as an isolation facility for close community cases and symptomatic border cases, and planning is also well under way to transition the Holiday Inn managed isolation facility to a dual facility which, if necessary, can make 58 of its 247 isolation rooms available for quarantine purposes in a separate wing.
The Grand Mercure in Wellington has become a quarantine-only facility and the Bay Plaza Wellington is now used exclusively for close contacts of community cases who are required to isolate and cannot do so safely at home. We’re continuing to explore reconfiguring more facilities. Conversations are ongoing between the hotels, our partner agencies who supply our crucial workforce and wider stakeholders as we work together to respond to this evolving situation.”
Meanwhile, the Maori Party has launched a petition against more MIQ in Rotorua stating that a new facility would stretch healthcare staff and resources apart from bringing greater risks for exposure to the Covid 19.
Talking about MIQ, as of now, there's still several thousand rooms yet to be released through to the end of November. On being asked if there is any indication of when the pause will be lifted, King says, “We will let people know when the system returns to normal, in the meantime the emergency allocation process remains open for New Zealanders who require urgent travel within the next 14 days”.