Govt ponders buying ‘one or two’ MIQ hotels

The Government is considering buying “one or two” of the 31 hotels across New Zealand currently being used as managed isolation facilities.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins yesterday revealed plans to buy a couple of the MIQ hotels.

“It might be that we buy one or two of our existing facilities and do more work to convert them so that they are more fit-for-purpose. We’re looking at all of those options at the moment,” Hipkins told Newshub.

Building an MIQ facility was also an option.

“I think we are likely to have an MIQ capability over the medium to longer term. It might not be at the scale that we have now but I think we’re still likely to need to have that ability to do that,” Hipkins said.

However, in February Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern poured cold water on the need for a purpose-built facility that could hold 6000 people — describing it as a “significant ask”.

There have been numerous breaches from MIQ hotel facilities across New Zealand since the country’s first lockdown in March last year. Many of the facilities are in Auckland’s CBD, which has heightened the risk of close contact exposure with the public, and the potential for lockdown, when individuals in quarantine do escape.

Last month, the Herald reported on concerns around a Covid-19 vaccination centre being erected metres away from a quarantine facility’s exercise area.

Aucklander Andrew Johnson was shocked when he arrived for his first jab at the CBD vaccination centre at the Atrium on Elliott shopping centre and realised he was walking past potentially infectious MIQ residents in the exercise area at the Crowne Plaza hotel, which was in the same building complex.

A MIQ spokesperson said members of the public were allowed to talk to MIQ residents through the fences, but residents were required to wear a mask and remain at least 2 metres away.

One expert expressed concern about the arrangement, but another was confident the risk was minimal, a view echoed by those running the MIQ and vaccination facilities, who were confident of the risk assessment protocols in place.

It came after reports found aerosol transmission was the most likely cause of two instances of MIQ virus transmission between residents in the Grand Mercure and Grand Millennium Auckland. Both facilities are closed while their ventilation systems are upgraded.