Covid-19 coronavirus: MIQ spaces limited until March
6 Jan, 2021 08:19 PM
3 minutes to read
Sspaces in MIQ facilities are extremely limited until March, but some may come available as travel plans changed. Photo / RNZ
RNZ
Managed isolation and quarantine facilities are expected to have no spare rooms in the next two weeks.
According the latest MBIE managed isolation and quarantine daily 14-day forecast, spaces in MIQ facilities are extremely limited until March, but some may come available as travel plans changed.
MIQ facilities around the country had a combined operational capacity of 4500 rooms - in the next 14 days, 4299 of these rooms will be full with 5627 people staying in them.
New Zealanders in UK beg to return as new Covid variants spread Friday, December 25, 2020 Katie Todd for RNZ
The rapid spread of new Covid-19 strains in the UK has some New Zealanders pleading with the government for help to get home.
Meanwhile people here - including health experts - want the government to tighten the screws on its border controls.
A New Zealander in the UK, Ranko Berich, described the situation for fellow Kiwis as hundreds of people in dire straits .
He has been trying to get home with his wife and two young children, having left his job and given notice on his flat, but they have found themselves in the thick of travel disruption.
One new highly infectious COVID-19 variant is spreading across Britain while another, imported from South Africa, is under investigation by experts.
A New Zealander in the UK, Ranko Berich, described the situation for fellow Kiwis as hundreds of people in dire straits .
He has been trying to get home with his wife and two young children, having left his job and given notice on his flat, but they have found themselves in the thick of travel disruption.
Hundreds of flights were cancelled after Singapore and Hong Kong stopped allowing transits. We re effectively jobless and homeless and we have to sort of scramble to make alternative arrangements, he said.
When Kimberley Dreyer s father was placed in the high dependency unit in Waikato Hospital on life support late last month, she scrambled to get from Queensland to be with him.
Under emergency allocation criteria brought in the following week, she could apply to skip the 10-week queue for managed isolation spaces and begin the process within seven days.
The application proved more difficult than she expected, when the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment requested a letter from a medical practitioner stipulating his life expectancy. My response to them was well, he s on life support and we ve been told immediate family have been contacted to attend - so I m guessing it s any day now.