The Government should launch an urgent review of its MIQ facilities, with a focus on mingling between cohorts, National’s Covid-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

“News that the South African variant of Covid-19 has made it into the community is very worrying, as is the fact that the infected person caught it in managed isolation.

“National has been concerned for some time about how MIQ facilities are being run, particularly for high risk arrivals. Anecdotal evidence we have heard from people in MIQ about how they are being managed has been extremely concerning.

“New Zealand should adopt a risk-based approach in our MIQ facilities. This means segmenting arrivals depending on where they have come from, placing arrivals from high risk areas – such as the UK, US and South Africa – into their own dedicated hotels.

“Eliminating shared space in high risk hotels until the first negative test result should also be considered.

“The Government can’t afford to be complacent with this new threat. We must plug this gap in the system now before it’s too late.”

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