133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
T+64 4 496 2000
Bronwyn Pullar
By email: [FYI request #13667 email]
Ref:
H202007002
Dear Bronwyn Pullar
Response to your request for official information
Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) on 4 September
2020 for:
“What programmes of sentinel surveil ance testing has been established and implemented
by the Ministry of Health and regional health authorities since March 2020 to regularly
screen the cohort of young, foreign travellers within NZ for Covid-19, for whom age,
shared and transient living arrangements, and socialising skil s make them more likely to
be asymptomatic, super-spreading carriers of Covid-19, and where barriers to being
tested for Covid-19 exist, such as, a lack of any symptoms, the lack of a vehicle to queue
up to a testing station, a lack of patience to wait in a queue to be tested, the lack of a local
GP, concerns over their visa status, the lack of an incentive to get tested, and/or a
carefree, irresponsible attitude?
Please provide copies of all information and official advice provided to the Minister of
Health, the all of Government Covid-19 taskforce, and to the Department of Prime Minister
and Cabinet, regarding sentinel surveil ance testing of the cohort of young, foreign
travellers within NZ for Covid-19.”
Your request for this information is refused under section 18(d) of the Act, as the information wil
soon be made publicly available.
Under section 28(3) of the Act you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review my decision
to refuse your request
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Ministry of Health website.
Yours sincerely
Nick Allan
Manager OIA Services
Office of the Director-General