More tests and quarantining the key tools
National Party health spokesman, and a member of Parliament’s epidemic response select committee
Testing for Covid-19 and enforced quarantine for those entering New Zealand will be two of our most important tools in fighting and eventually eliminating the virus. The lockdown is painful, both economically and socially, so it has to work and work quickly. That means enforcing it properly, quarantining arrivals and testing much more broadly. Failure to do these things will mean we are in lockdown longer, or we come out of it having failed to stamp out the virus.
Both scenarios are simply unacceptable. This was the message epidemiologist Sir David Skegg gave Parliament’s epidemic response select committee last week, saying the lockdown is only part of the puzzle for eliminating
Covid-19, describing it as ‘‘pressing the pause button’’ on the virus. More measures, such as a beefed-up testing regime and border quarantining, will be needed to eliminate the virus.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been saying for weeks that ‘‘test, test, test’’ should be the cornerstone of every nation’s response; National has been echoing that perspective and repeatedly calling for an increased testing regime.
Ministry of Health officials were stating recently that there was no issue with testing, and that everyone who wanted a test could get one. In fact, there are many occurrences where probable cases are missing out, and many potential incubators are wandering straight through our border as they return home.
Over recent weeks, too many people showing symptoms have been refused tests because they haven’t been overseas or been able to prove a clear link to overseas travel. All it takes is one case to let the cat out of the bag and spread the virus even further, so there is no excuse for us to give the benefit of the doubt to any possible case.
I was relieved to see the Government announce it will be expanding its testing criteria, and I am looking forward to seeing the ‘‘test, test, test’’ mentality, as suggested by the WHO.
While the Government has changed its tune on testing, it now needs to do the same in regards to quarantine.
Effective quarantining has been the foundation of other countries’ successful responses and is something on which we’re currently behind. Australia has put rules in place at the border that mean everyone entering is put into a controlled quarantine. Here we’re simply waving people through and trusting them to self-isolate.
Taiwan has been the poster child for containing the virus so far, and this is because it has got ahead of the virus and implemented hard-line quarantining measures that have limited the spread.
While the prime minister says our selfisolation measures are effectively quarantine, this is not true. Quarantine should mean a strict isolation being imposed and monitored, not trusting people to do the right thing and leaving them to it.
The police commissioner even admitted police have failed at enforcing the isolation of New Zealanders recently returned from overseas, confirming officers have been unable to visit all of the more than 4000 people who’ve come back within the past three days.
It is clear that New Zealand needs to implement a full quarantine if we are to eliminate this virus. For weeks our borders have been porous, with no thermal testing being undertaken, and self-isolation not being policed well enough. That has to stop.
The Government’s U-turn on testing shows the importance of constructively scrutinising our response. Through the work of National, the epidemic response committee, social media and media outlets, the prime minister has seen that the testing regime was too restrictive and has had to change her mind.
It’s important there is strong scrutiny of our response to this pandemic, as it will affect future generations, both in terms of lives but also in terms of the billions of dollars being spent. We will continue working hard and constructively to make sure our response to this pandemic is as strong as it can be.