Dear Chris Hipkins,

This request is made to you since you hold the portfolio of Minister for COVID-19 Response.

I am a New Zealander living overseas for past few years and wanting to return to New Zealand in the near future.

I understand that all overseas arrivals to NZ need to enter into MIQ facility for 7-day institutional quarantine, even when they are fully vaccinated and tested Covid negative in the pre-departure Covid tests. I also understand that many local community Covid-19 cases are now doing isolation/quarantine in MIQ facilities around the country.

This request is to understand the risk of contracting Covid-19 for those negatively-tested overseas returnees when they spend time in the MIQ facilities which are also occupied by the local infections.

My questions are with respect to the as-of date of November 2, 2021.

1) As of this date, which all MIQ facilities do host both the locally infected persons and the overseas arrivals? Also for each such facility, please give a break up of the number rooms occupied by the local infections and number of rooms occupied by the overseas arrivals.

2) Suppose an overseas person arrives New Zealand with Covid-negative predeparture tests and Covid-negative in the arrival tests done at NZ, and then occupies an MIQ facility shared by the local infections. How many such individual overseas arrivals become Covid-positive during the tests closer to the end of their MIQ term, and which specific MIQ facilities were they placed?

3) When an overseas arriving person does get infected with Covid-19 during the end of their MIQ term, how do you identify whether this person got infected during their stay in the MIQ facility? What are the specific measures taken to identify this? And, if such specific measures are in place for this, I also would like to know how these measures are used to understand & mitigate the risks of putting Covid-negative overseas arrivals into an MIQ facility where a growing number of local infections are placed already.

I hope to get response to these queries in a timely manner.

Yours faithfully,

Raghu