The Government still says that there is no link to the border for the resurgence of the Chinese plague, despite the fact the B1.1.1 genome comes from Australia.
We discovered last week that 179 people left isolation with no tests, and now we find that more than 100 people were transferred from Auckland to Christchurch partway through their isolation period without getting swabbed.
Newly-released documents reveal chaos in the managed isolation process earlier this year, with more than 100 people transferred from Auckland to Christchurch partway through their isolation period without getting swabbed.
The minister in charge of managed isolation facilities, Megan Woods, and Canterbury health officials say the issues have since been fixed and people are now being transferred to Christchurch immediately on arrival.
Canterbury chief medical officer Sue Nightingale alerted director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield of the “flawed” process in an email sent on June 16.
The email contains a summary of the issues raised by staff, who wrote they had “no faith in the process”.
Issues included people being transferred “in the middle of their quarantine when they are most likely to develop symptoms”.
Staff had “repeatedly asked” for flights to go to Christchurch or for people to be transferred immediately “but we are told this is too difficult – we think that we need to do what is safe, not what is simple”, the letter said.
So the border was and likely still is in complete chaos. We shouldn’t really be surprised when the same people who couldn’t solve child poverty, build Kiwibuild houses or a light-rail system to the airport are in charge.
We shouldn’t be so hard on Megan Woods, she often has a lot on her plate.
The bad news just keeps on coming for this inept government.
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