TAXPAYER FOOTS SECURITY BILL
Taxpayers spent tens of thousands of dollars providing private security to a handful of people arriving into New Zealand who were granted exemptions from the Covid-19-related border controls and allowed to isolate at home.
Despite the expensive security measures, information obtained under the Official Information Act showed at least two people breached these restrictions by entering or exiting the properties of the people who were in isolation.
Mystery surrounds why certain families were granted exemptions to isolate at home, while others had to go to managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities.
Almost 92,000 people have passed through MIQ facilities since the end of March.
The Ministry of Health said the families granted exemptions were ‘‘low risk’’ but it refused to answer any further questions about why they had been considered special cases, citing privacy. It said the same levels of precaution were taken to protect the rest of the community.
Health officials in Auckland, New Zealand’s main port of entry, said they provided a security detail for fewer than five households in August and October, and for five to 10 families in September.
Some households may have been counted twice in the figures because they were in isolation during two calendar months.
Auckland District Health Board chief executive Ailsa Claire said it spent an average of $23,710.59 per month on security staff for people isolating at home.
The ministry declined to provide further information about the two breaches involving people given exemptions from MIQ who were allowed to isolate at home, again citing privacy concerns, but confirmed their contacts were identified, traced and deemed to be low-risk.
After the two breaches were detected, the ministry started requiring detailed compliance plans to be approved before exemptions were granted.
District health boards were notified of the exemptions.
The Government’s MIQ service website listed grounds for exemption from MIQs as including some medical conditions and unspecified ‘‘exceptional circumstances’’. It stated people were unlikely to be allowed to isolate home for health or dietary reasons.
Cases that were considered exceptional required agreement to a ‘‘strict release plan’’.
‘‘This includes a requirement to maintain a 2-metre distance from other people – including family and friends – and you will be closely monitored by government or security personnel,’’ the website guidelines said.
Shona Meyrick, a manager of the Covid-19 border and managed isolation health system response, said MIQ may be unsuitable for some families for various reasons.
In such cases, they could be granted exemptions to isolate at home by a medical officer of health, usually the clinical director of their local district health board.
Applications for exemptions from managed isolation were considered on a case-by-case basis, Meyrick said.
‘‘Exemptions will only be approved where there is confidence that the public health risk of transmission is very low.’’
However, this does not seem to apply to all returnees. Former United States ambassador Scott Brown was allowed to isolate at his Lower Hutt home after returning from a visit to the US in August.
Brown said he and his wife isolated at their official residence partly to avoid being a burden on the New Zealand taxpayer.