The release fails to mention that the Government investigated a similar proposal in September, when Professor Nick Wilson, of Otago University’s public health department, called for a purpose-built MIQ facility at Ōhakea Air Base in Manawatū. This proposal tweaks that by suggesting it should be on the outskirts of Auckland, near the International Airport. This tweak reintroduces the key “leakage” issue with using downtown Auckland hotels for the majority of the city’s 18 MIQ facilities: facility staff – whether hotel workers, defence force staff, or healthcare workers – mostly live in Auckland. And if the issue of dedicated MIQ facilities is about design rather than location, then why does this proposal not call for dedicated MIQ facilities in Hamilton, Wellington, and Christchurch, also home to hotels being used for MIQ. Had National, or Wilson, or the Government been calling for dedicated MIQ facilities at the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak, it would have been both prescient and bold, even if very expensive.

Source: Stuff February 22, 2021 15:56 UTC