Former Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says his apology to journalist Charlotte Bellis does not extend to the Aotearoa New Zealand government’s MIQ system generally.

Bellis, a New Zealand journalist based in Afghanistan at the time, had gone public in January with her struggle to secure a spot in the managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) hotels while pregnant.

Hipkins publicly apologised to her in a statement this morning, admitting her MIQ application was deactivated in error and some of his comments about her case had been wrong.

• READ MORE:  Chris Hipkins apologises to Charlotte Bellis for comments on MIQ application
• Other MIQ reports

He later told reporters there was no settlement payment involved, and both parties wanted to leave the matter behind them.

“We’ve concluded the matter. I’ve conveyed to her privately and now publicly my apology and she’s indicated she wants to leave it at that — and I’m happy to do that too,” he said.

“Right at the beginning, clearly there were a few things that got lost in communication, lost in translation. I do regret that and so my apology in that sense is a very genuine one.”

Hipkins was removed from the covid-19 portfolio just over a week ago, taking over police instead, with Dr Ayesha Verrall taking over the pandemic response.

Timing of the apology
He said the timing of his apology to Bellis had been agreed with her.

“She indicated that’s the timing that she wanted,” he said. “Obviously it would have ideally been better to have had this done before I gave up the covid portfolio rather than the week after, but ultimately MIQ’s been winding down now since February so I think everybody’s moved on from it.

“She indicated that she wanted something more public. I was happy to do that, it took a little bit of time to negotiate that and to get all of that ironed out.”

The National and ACT parties urged the government to also apologise over the handling of MIQ generally.

National’s Covid-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop said if Hipkins could apologise to Bellis, “then the government can surely apologise to all the Kiwis caught up in the lottery of human misery that was MIQ”.

“The High Court has found that MIQ unjustifiably breached New Zealanders’ rights from September to December 2021. The government should do the right thing and apologise for the way MIQ operated,” he said.

“There are countless other examples that haven’t hit the headlines. Other pregnant women who couldn’t return home. Kiwis trapped offshore who watched their visas expire in the countries they were in. People who missed the deaths of cherished loved ones and the birth of new lives.”

‘Caught out spinning’
ACT leader David Seymour said the government was not apologising for the misery its policy caused, just getting caught out spinning it.

“The government has rightly apologised for spreading misinformation about a citizen’s personal circumstances, now it should apologise for running MIQ selection so inhumanely and running it four months longer than necessary at enormous cost to the taxpayer and economy,” he said.

He said then Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield had advised MIQ was no longer necessary in December last year, and the government should be apologising for the $178 million it cost to maintain through to March.

“Included in that period was Charlotte Bellis’ repeated failed attempts to get a spot, forcing her to seek refuge with the Taliban,” he said.

Hipkins said they were very different matters.

“In this particular case there were some aspects of the information that I released that were incorrect and so I absolutely have acknowledged that and have apologised for that. In terms of MIQ I will maintain — and the courts in fact have maintained — MIQ was absolutely justified,” he said.

“What the court did find … the way we allocated space in MIQ wasn’t right. We tried a number of different things during that time to try different booking systems, to try and make that system fairer.”

Not contesting court ruling
He said he acknowledged the court’s ruling and was not contesting it, but repeated that the system as a whole was justified.

“Were MIQ ever to have to happen again in the future then those responsible for it would have to find a different way of allocating space within MIQ — but MIQ itself was absolutely justified.

“It’s the reason that we were able to go as long as we did without having covid-19 in the community.

“It’s also the reason why over the summer break, people managed to have a summer break and were able to have that opportunity to get their boosters before omicron arrived in the community.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

As workers on the ground running ourselves into the ground, it’s quite disheartening to read all the reactionary criticism of MIQ, the managed isolation and quarantine system which has saved thousands of lives in New Zealand.

It’s easy not to appreciate what it has achieved, given it has prevented something awful from happening, and only see the restrictions and disadvantages it has necessarily caused by its existence.

Also, most of the people who have been spared from severe illness are not the ones who are complaining.

• READ MORE: Other reports on NZ’s response to covid-19
• 120 protesters at NZ’s Parliament arrested as tension grows on third day

I am so impressed with the small and dedicated MIQ teams I have worked with — a throw-together of excellent nurses, health care assistants, well-being coordinators, security, hotel staff, police and the impressive NZ Defence Force.

These people are gold and the cornerstone of preventing a certain healthcare system crisis.

They have retained great professionalism in the face of numerous extremely challenging guests and logistics around dealing with covid positive cases while keeping them as happy as can be in a confined space.

Currently we are full of overseas border returnees from all over the world, many angry at being in isolation and taking it out on our staff, to the point where absenteeism is common and job satisfaction has dipped hugely.

Staggering towards MIQ end
We are all staggering towards the end of the MIQ system, rather punch drunk and weary.

Our staff currently receive relentless angry calls from guests who don’t get what they want immediately, currently often the investigation of potential historical covid status (of which there are dozens presently), more than one expressing “there will be blood on the walls” if their immediate demands are not met.

I can understand why to a degree — they are stuck in a room and can’t see the huge amount of work going on behind the scenes, with teams putting in long tiring days, well over their paid hours, but unfortunately it also brings out the worst in some people of certain personality types and those with mental health issues.

Also I must add that a majority of people are able to “just get on with it” and do the time, something most of us would find tedious.

There is a financial cost to saving lives in any area of healthcare and now it has been deemed the harms of MIQ outweigh the benefits, rightly in my and most people’s opinion, as covid spreads in the community and borders open up.

If only we could have the same political will and public acceptance that we have had for lockdown and vaccination programme to put preventative health measures and laws to address the two other huge elephants in the room, our chronic disease epidemic and environmental crises.

Firm beneficial health laws
We could reduce our health spending by orders of magnitude while greatly improving health if we had some firm laws for clearly beneficial proposals such as sugar and fat taxes, and the marketing of harmful, processed foods and alcohol, especially at our children.

We could equally slash our carbon emissions whilst raising health outcomes with the promotion of a plant based type of diet, as per the current international public health consensus.

We just need to be brave, follow the science and not give in to the numerous interest group detractors. Our world beating covid response has shown we can do it.

Let’s keep the momentum up and not go back to our pre-covid slumber.

Dr Mark Craig is an Auckland-based lifestyle medicine doctor working in managed isolation and quarantine facilities. This article was first published in the New Zealand Herald and is republished here with the author’s permission.

More moves to tighten the New Zealand’s borders may be needed on top of the decision to delay the start of the self-isolation scheme for Australian travellers, a professor of public health says.

Today, the government announced cabinet has decided to delay the self-isolation scheme.

Instead of travellers being allowed to self-isolate from January 17 the change will take effect from the end of February.

• READ MORE:  28 new community cases today, returnee who didn’t complete isolation left with child
• Other NZ covid outbreak reports

For those who had booked to come home to New Zealand from Australia from January 17, the government would work with airlines to ensure some MIQ space was available, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said at a media update.

Air New Zealand has already cancelled about 120 flights, mostly from across the Tasman, as a result of the changes.

The rapid spread worldwide of the omicron variant of covid-19 is the main reason for the policy rethink.

It is among changes announced today that include a vaccine rollout for five to 11 year olds from January and a reduction in the time to wait for booster shots — from six months to four months.

Public health experts welcome change
The changes are being welcomed by public health experts, with Professor Nick Wilson from Otago University saying that the delay in self-isolation was the most important.

He said temporarily turning down the tap on international travellers from countries with the worst omicron outbreaks (at least for two to three months) may also be needed.

New South Wales officials over the weekend noted omicron was now likely the dominant strain in the state’s third outbreak, in which today alone it recorded more than 3000 cases.

But Professor Wilson said the government may also need to:

• insist on rapid antigen tests at the airport for international travellers coming into Aotearoa;
• make more improvements to MIQ facilities in terms of ventilation and avoiding shared spaces such as exercise areas; and
• re-design the alert level system so that it can rapidly eliminate any outbreaks of the omicron variant that arise in the community.

“While there is still a lot of uncertainty around the omicron variant, especially the risk of severe disease, it is wise to try to keep it out of NZ as long as possible and until more is known about this variant,” Professor Wilson said.

No clear evidence of lower severity
Dr Matthew Hobbs, a senior lecturer in public health at the University of Canterbury, said he was concerned that a recent study from Imperial College London showed no clear evidence that omicron had lower severity than delta.

“Though it will be disappointing for many, through reviewing and postponing current border reopening plans, New Zealand has bought itself some much needed time while it works out how much of a problem omicron could be — like the last time we closed the Trans-Tasman bubble,” he said.

“It also provides us with a few more crucial months to get the booster shots up and roll out the paediatric vaccines.”

Dr Hobbs suggested the vaccination requirement for arrivals could be raised to three doses to reduce the risk of Omicron coming to New Zealand.

“More broadly, we also need to shift our domestic focus to a global perspective. The root of this issue is that the world isn’t doing enough to stop the spread of covid-19,” Dr Hobbs said.

“Wealthy countries around the world continue to hoard vaccines. This ultimately gives the virus more opportunities to replicate and mutate.

“Omicron should act as the wake-up call to ensure worldwide equitable vaccine delivery before even more concerning variants emerge.”

Omicron would ‘reach NZ quickly from Australia’
Professor Michael Plank, from Te Pūnaha Matatini and the University of Canterbury, said the rapidly growing omicron outbreak in New South Wales and its spread to other Australian states meant it would almost certainly get into the community in New Zealand within weeks if the country went ahead with border reopening plans in January.

“Delaying reopening plans to the end of February gives us a chance to keep omicron out until the majority of adults have received their third dose of the vaccine,” he said.

“Increasing the MIQ stay to 10 days and shortening the pre-departure test period from 72 to 48 hours are sensible ways to reduce the risk of the highly transmissible Omicron variant leaking out of MIQ. Adding a requirement for a rapid test on the day of the departure would be a useful extra measure.

“Hopefully these measures will keep omicron contained at the border. But if omicron does find its way into the community, the government has said it intends to use the red level of the traffic light system to try and control its spread.

“It’s unlikely this would be sufficient to prevent rapid spread of the variant if community transmission became established.

“Rolling out booster doses as quickly as possible is therefore essential to minimising the risk that omicron overwhelms our healthcare system.”

Hipkins also noted in the announcement today that the variant would spread quickly if it was in the community, and that public health advice suggested that soon every case coming into our border will be the omicron variant.

28 new covid-19 community cases
The Ministry of Health reported today there are 28 new cases of covid-19 in the community, and no new omicron cases in Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ).

In a statement, the ministry said of the new cases, 21 were in Auckland, five in Bay of Plenty, and two in Taranaki.

There are 57 cases in hospital, 10 in North Shore, 25 in Auckland, 19 in Middlemore, one in Northland, and two in Waikato. Seven cases are in ICU or HDU (one in North Shore; two in Auckland; three in Middlemore, one in Northland).

The ministry has also revealed that a recent returnee who left Middlemore Hospital without discharge, after being transferred from MIQ, also took their young child with them.

The child was transferred in the ambulance with the parent because it meant they could not be left unattended in managed isolation due to their age.

Police are currently investigating the incident which happened early on Monday morning.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. The public health comments in this report were put together by the Science Media Centre. Professor Michael Plank is partly funded by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet for research on mathematical modelling of covid-19.

The agent for a ship carrying two covid-19-infected fishermen says New Zealand officials jumped the gun in announcing all its crew would be taken into managed isolation.

The mariners were in a group of nine sailors who arrived in Auckland on Monday without having to quarantine and were immediately driven to New Plymouth to board their deep sea fishing vessel.

Yesterday, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the Viking Bay was returning to New Plymouth where all 15 crew would be taken into managed isolation.

• LISTEN TO RNZ MORNING REPORT: ‘We shouldn’t speculate too soon’ – Bill Preston (duration 6′:55″)

However, last night that was rejected by the port, which said it would put staff at risk.

As of last night, the Ministry of Health said it was now unclear where the ship would dock. The ministry declined to be interviewed today on RNZ Morning Report.

The vessel’s agent when it was at Taranaki, Bill Preston, told Morning Report the ship appeared to be in international waters.

Preston said there had been a lack of communication.

‘Jumping the gun’
“Announcements have been made without collaboration with the port or anybody. So I think everybody is jumping the gun a bit.”

He said the first he had heard of the situation was when the port’s chief executive called him to confirm the news, after Dr Bloomfield’s announcement in the weekly vaccine update yesterday.

“I said [to the port’s chief executive], ‘no, there’s been no decision around what the vessel is going to do at this stage’.”

Dr Bloomfield’s announcement was also the first time that the port had heard of the news too, Preston said.

Since then, he said he had seen communication with the ministry overnight, about making a plan of what the ship would do.

Maritime Union national secretary Craig Harrison said the port should reverse that decision on humanitarian grounds.

“Taranaki could let the vessel pull on site and tie up and not let anyone off but get them close to medical health in case something happens.”

Port’s ban ‘harsh’
Harrison said the port’s decision was “harsh”.

“We really feel for the crew now … this crew has got nowhere to go and you can guarantee that any foreign port that’s close to us now won’t let them in their waters… they won’t want to touch them,” he said.

“Unfortunately, I think New Zealand will have to do something about it.”

He said preventing the virus spreading to other crew on the cramped vessel would be difficult, with closed ventilation on the ship and only one galley.

“I feel really sorry for the crew that are out there, because you can imagine that what’s going through their minds is sooner or later are they going to get covid-19. It’s a terrible situation to be in and I think time is of the essence.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.