NZ government legal definition of COVID-19

J Frater made this Official Information request to Chris Hipkins

Response to this request is long overdue. By law Chris Hipkins should have responded by now (details and exceptions). The requester can complain to the Ombudsman.

From: J Frater

Chris Hipkins,

1. Please provide the full legal definition of COVID-19 that the New Zealand Government uses, and provide the link to the document so I can read this.

2. In relation to the testing that is carried out by the New Zealand Government for the disease you call COVID-19, what is the genetic material called that is amplified by the PCR tests that are then classed as "cases" of COVID-19 - is it SARS-CoV-2 or something else? Please provide full details.

J Frater

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From: C Hipkins (MIN)
Chris Hipkins

Kia ora

 

Thank you for taking the time to write to Hon Chris Hipkins, Minister for
COVID-19 Response, Minister of Education, Minister for the Public Sector
and Leader of the House.

We are receiving a significant amount of correspondence at the moment and,
although your email will be carefully considered and noted, it is not
possible to respond to each individual email. However, please note that
this is an automatic response and we will endeavour to respond to your
individual queries as soon as we can.

All parts of New Zealand south of the Auckland boundary moved to Alert
Level 3 at 11.59pm Tuesday 31 August 2021. This setting will remain in
place for one week and Cabinet will review this decision on Monday 6
September 2021.

Auckland will remain at Alert Level 4 for a further two weeks. Cabinet
will meet on Monday 13 September 2021 to review the Alert Level setting
for Auckland.

Northland is expected to remain at Alert Level 4 until 11.59pm Thursday 2
September 2021. Cabinet will review the Alert Level setting for Northland
later this week.

Information about Alert Level 3 is available
at [1]https://covid19.govt.nz/alert-levels-and...
about Alert Level 4
at [2]https://covid19.govt.nz/alert-levels-and....
Advice about travel can be found
at [3]https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/dise....

The locations of interest are set out
at [4]https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/dise...
encourage anyone who has been at one of the locations of interest at the
time specified to self-isolate and call Healthline on 0800 358 5453. You
can find the nearest testing centre to you
at [5]https://www.healthpoint.co.nz/covid-19/.

We appreciate that this is a challenging time. If you need to talk, you
can call or text 1737 at any time. Mental health and wellbeing resources
are also available
at [6]https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/dise...
about the financial support available to individuals and businesses can be
found at [7]https://covid19.govt.nz/business-and-mon....

We also understand that there are several other aspects to the response
that are very important to people. You can find more information about:

o Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ)
at [8]https://www.miq.govt.nz/, including how to request an emergency
allocation
at [9]https://www.miq.govt.nz/travel-to-new-ze...
make a complaint or request a review of your application by
emailing [10]https://www.miq.govt.nz/about/contact-us....
o Travel with Australia
at [11]https://covid19.govt.nz/travel/quarantin...
you are in Australia, please register
at [12]https://www.safetravel.govt.nz/ and if it is an emergency,
contact the Consulate on +64 99 20 20 20.
o Vaccines at [13]https://covid19.govt.nz/covid-19-vaccines/, including
how to book your vaccine
at [14]https://bookmyvaccine.covid19.health.nz/... by calling 0800 28
29 26.
o Vaccine data and statistics
at [15]https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/dise...
Medsafe’s vaccine safety monitoring reports
at [16]https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/COVID-19/vac...
o The Government’s plan to reconnect New Zealand with the rest of the
world
at [18]https://covid19.govt.nz/reconnecting-new....

Please remember to take care, and be kind. We have beaten COVID-19 before,
and we can do it again.

Ngā mihi,

Office of Hon Chris Hipkins

Minister for COVID-19 Response | Minister of Education | Minister for the
Public Sector | Leader of the House | MP for Remutaka

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