Covid-19: All managed isolation and quarantine hotel contracts to expire on April 30

Wednesday, 3 February 2021

Brigadier Jim Bliss, the head of New Zealand's managed isolation and quarantine system, discusses the renewal of isolation hotel contracts (first published March 25).

The Government's contracts with all 32 managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities are to expire simultaneously in two months’ time.

And the head of MIQ is not ruling out the possibility some will drop out of the system after the contracts run out on April 30.

However, New Zealand Army Brigadier Jim Bliss, who has been the head of MIQ since December, told Stuff he was sure the hotels would give sufficient notice if they decide to withdraw from the service and reopen to the public.

His comments came in a wide-ranging interview on Wednesday, following news the Rydges Hotel in downtown Auckland had opened for bookings to the public from May 1.

Auckland residents were urged to remain vigilant for Covid-19 symptoms after people who completed hotel quarantine at the Pullman Hotel MIQ tested positive for the virus.

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Brigadier Jim Bliss, head of Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ), pictured in Hamilton shortly after he was appointed in mid-December.

At least one other downtown hotel used as an MIQ is also accepting bookings from the public for May.

The negotiation process for the new MIQ contracts continues and Bliss wouldn't comment on any upcoming changes to the conditions in the agreements, which differ from facility to facility.

“We’ve got a great relationship with our hotels, and we’re sure that they would give us sufficient notice if they decided to cease being one of our facilities prior to the 30th of April.”

Returning New Zealanders in MIQ in Auckland are being bused to an exercise pen in Mt Albert.

A single hotel pulling out of the MIQ system could remove several hundred beds from the 4500 currently in circulation.

However, Bliss said none of the hotels had definitively indicated they wouldn't continue as an isolation hotel after April.

Bliss said the 4500 capacity allows about 10,000 New Zealanders per month to return home, but he was unable to say how many were expected to come back this year.

Asked about whether MIQ would increase capacity, he said it was not looking at increasing the number of facilities in use or looking to use hotels outside the five cities currently housing them.

“We’re quite happy with the arrangements we have with the facilities we're operating.”

He also all but ruled out the use of military facilities for MIQ.

Bliss also revealed cancelled MIQ vouchers won't return to circulation until at least the end of next week while the Pullman remains offline following news of three Covid-19 cases in the community linked to the hotel.

“We’re not returning vouchers into the system to build up that little bit of contingency in case we have another event,” he said.

“If I have an earthquake in Rotorua like we had last week, and luckily it didn't affect any of our facilities, I’ve got to have the ability to safely move up to 300 rooms worth of people, in a level 4 lockdown kind of system, to a new facility, safely.

“And that’s really important for the safety of our people and our staff.”

Bliss would not comment specifically on the decision to grant the family of Breakers player Thomas Abercrombie an exemption to isolate at home. The family has two autistic children and Abercrombie said the decision to grant the exemption was a medical one.

However, Bliss said exemptions have a very high threshold.

“We’ve only granted six offshore ones and only five once someone is in a facility,” he said.

“Those decisions are taken very seriously. There is no recognition of fame or fortune in any of our decision-making.”