Covid-19: Woman struggling to get back to NZ to see dying mum welcomes MIQ changes
Friday, 4 December 2020
A woman struggling to get back into New Zealand to see her terminally ill mum is welcoming a Government change that will make it easier for people in her position.
However, it might come too late for her to say goodbye to her mum, she says.
The criteria for people making emergency applications for a spot in managed isolation has been widened into a new tier system, the Government announced on Friday, allowing a better chance for those with dying relatives to get in.
While New Zealand citizens with serious health concerns will still get priority under ‘category one’, the new system introduces ‘category two’, which allows people to apply for emergency allocation under a raft of new criteria.
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Citizens or residents visiting a close relative who is dying, those who are unable to remain legally in their current location, people who are needed for a time-critical public or health service or a national security interest, and critical care of a dependant person in New Zealand are all included in the new category.
Davina Stonex moved to Los Angeles about five years ago and is struggling to get back into the country.
She has faced multiple rejections for an emergency exemption to see her mother, from Auckland’s Panmure, who was diagnosed with terminal gallbladder cancer in October.
The family has been told they may only have a matter of weeks left.
“I’m desperate. [It] feels wrong to be begging someone to let me into a country I was born in,” she said.
Going through the process has been frustrating and emotionally draining, she said, especially when time is of the essence.
Her mother, Vivian Stonex, has started her first round of chemotherapy, but due to an infection is still considered high risk.
Stonex has managed to book a flight and get accommodation for late December, but she’s worried that by that time, plus the two weeks of isolation, it may be too late.
“I was reading the other day about a couple who got back into the country and were staying in managed isolation when their family member died.
“I just started crying. I thought, ‘that can’t be me’.”
She said it is good the Government has made some changes, and she will be applying, but it might have come too late for her.
Di Cunliffe submitted her emergency application to get a spot in managed isolation as soon as she learnt her sister, Brenda Reardon from Kaukapakapa, had taken a turn for the worse with her metastatic breast cancer.
But as she waited for a response at her home in Perth, her sister died. Now she is unsure if she will make it to the funeral.
Cunliffe said it hurt to hear there were empty beds in MIQ facilities when she was busy emailing every few hours to see if she could get home.
She said the news of the change made her angry, as she wished a space had been available to her, but she is hopeful it could help someone else in her position.
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment deputy chief executive of managed Isolation and quarantine (MIQ) Megan Main said the emergency allocation process is a last resort option and the threshold is still extremely high.
“To be eligible for an emergency allocation, the travel must be time-critical, the applicant must be legally entitled to enter New Zealand, and they must be willing to travel within seven days of making their application.”
Main said she is confident about 150 rooms can be made available per fortnight for those who need to travel urgently.
Since November 3 when the Managed Isolation Allocation System (MIAS) was introduced, between five and eight rooms in MIQ facilities have gone unused per day as a result of people who have a flight but don’t have a voucher or have booked multiple vouchers.
Between seven and eight rooms have gone unused each day after being allocated to a person who had both a flight and a voucher, but didn’t arrive in New Zealand.
Main said the decisions on who to let in are not easy to make as there needs to be a balance between individual applications and the safety of New Zealanders.
Despite the new criteria, there is no guarantee that people who fit into them will receive an emergency allocation, as it is dependent on the number of rooms available at the time, she said.
Spots in MIQ facilities have been hard to get, with bookings going all the way to December 20 just two days after the new booking system was announced.
The full criteria
Category One
New Zealand citizens or residents where a serious risk to health exists for the applicant or their dependant, which requires urgent travel to New Zealand; OR
Where urgent travel is required to ensure a child is provided with appropriate care and protection.
Category Two
New Zealand citizens or residents who are required to provide critical care for a dependant person in New Zealand and need to travel urgently to do so; OR
A person whose entry to New Zealand is time-critical for the purpose of delivering a critical public or health service, such as the provision of specialist health services required to prevent serious illness, injury or death; or the maintenance of essential infrastructure whose failure would result in significant harm or disruption to a large number of New Zealanders; OR
New Zealand citizens or residents, who are unable to legally remain in their current location and have no other option but to return to New Zealand; OR
New Zealand and non-New Zealand citizens, where urgent travel to New Zealand is required for national security, national interest or law enforcement reasons; OR
New Zealand citizens or residents entering New Zealand to visit a close relative who is dying, where timely travel is unlikely to be possible if the person books through the Managed Isolation Allocation System.