Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: Govt to unveil plans to reconnect NZ to rest of the world

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Pregnant Kiwi journalist Charlotte Bellis will return to New Zealand at the end of this month after surviving the "circus" of her battle with the Government over an MIQ spot.

"It's definitely up there," she told ZB's Mike Hosking today after being asked about the experience and her battle to get home from Afghanistan.

"What a circus," she said.

Bellis said the Government had twice breached her privacy as the matter played out in public.

Asked if she would be taking legal action over the breaches, she said: "There's been such a circus that I don't really want to add more fuel to the fire. But they did breach my privacy twice in a matter of days."

She said her lawyer would likely want to pursue it, however.

Bellis said she wrote an opinion piece for the NZ Herald about her experience and then it spiralled after media picked up her story.

"I can't really make sense about what it's like in New Zealand," she said.

Although it was "great" for her that she gets to come home, she acknowledged other pregnant women around the world trying to get home to New Zealand.

Bellis spoke of the anxiety she had experienced too.

"I'm going to keep on top of things."

Bellis said authorities had told her to take the situation seriously.

"Did anyone think I wasn't taking it seriously?"

Her partner Jim Huylebroek will be allowed to come to New Zealand at the end of the month - which she called a "win".

They wanted to stay together for the birth of their child, she said. Her partner is now the sole breadwinner in their relationship after Bellis resigned from Al Jazeera in November.

However, if any changes to the border rule are made over the next few days - allowing foreigners to enter the country from early April, for example, her partner will wait to come to New Zealand then and continue to work in the meantime.

Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson denied yesterday that Bellis was given an MIQ spot because of political pressure.

There had been a lot of communication between officials and Bellis since she had applied under the medical classification, which required people to return within 14 days, he told RNZ.

In the past three months the Government had received 8800 emergency applications and 5300 had been approved.

Robertson said it was a "very challenging area with a lot of different circumstances".

Those who were pregnant and felt they needed to come back to New Zealand were able to apply and were assessed alongside a lot of other people in emergency and medical situations.

"I'm certainly not pretending this is easy for people, but MIQ has served a really important role for us and unfortunately it is one where difficult decisions have to get made all the time."

Bellis had not been given an MIQ spot just because she had made a fuss: officials had assessed her situation and her location and come to that decision, he said.

Not everyone who took the Government to court had been allowed in.

"In the end I'm pleased she's got a place and that she was able to come back to New Zealand."

Robertson encouraged people wanting to come back under the emergency application system to work within the system, but conceded it could appear "bureaucratic and frustrating".

PM to unveil border plan tomorrow

Meanwhile Kiwis will learn tomorrow when and how international travel might resume, after the Omicron response put the skids on reopening plans.

Daily case numbers have topped 100 and the Government has secured millions of rapid antigen tests for use during the Omicron outbreak.

Among those hoping for a clear date and guidance about the borders is Martin Newell in Melbourne, who has been trying to get home to see his family since early 2020.

Newell, a spokesman for the Grounded Kiwis support group, said sensible measures around home isolation, vaccines and surveillance could help more people return.

Martin Newell says New Zealanders stuck overseas mostly just want to come home to see loved ones after putting major life events on hold for two years. Photo / Supplied

"I just want them to give us a date," Newell said from Australia last night.

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Cabinet met yesterday to discuss the pandemic response.

Afterwards, Robertson said a speech on Thursday will outline how New Zealand will reconnect with the world.

People wearing face masks in Auckland's CBD on the weekend. Photo / Alex Burton

On December 21, the phased border reopening was postponed as the Omicron strain of Covid-19 started circulating globally.

"For us, it was hard in December to hear the news that home isolation and self-isolation were postponed, but it was understandable given what was happening with Omicron around the world," Newell said.

Newell said he expected a border reopening of sorts would be planned for the end of this month.

"We'll wait until that actually happens. We'll believe it when we see it."

Anything resembling pre-pandemic travel and tourism was unlikely to resume soon, he said.

But what he wanted was for people to get a chance to see parents, to introduce kids to grandparents, to reunite with loved ones.

"We're Kiwis that want to come home and hug our whānau."

Newell said Kiwis overseas could safely return, if sensible measures were in place.

"No Kiwi overseas would argue that MIQ was wrong to be implemented in 2020."

But the managed isolation system had been totally incapable of keeping up with demand, he said.

"It should be a condition that you should be triple-vaccinated to get into home isolation."

Yesterday, 126 new community Covid-19 cases were reported nationwide as the Omicron outbreak begins to take hold.

New Zealand is in the red traffic light phase of the Omicron response.

That phase exists within the first stage of a planned three-pronged response to Omicron, a relatively mild but highly transmissible Covid-19 strain.

The current pandemic response phase bans gatherings of more than 100 people.

The hospitality sector says the Omicron response is scaring people into a sort of voluntary lockdown, and Auckland CBD turnover is down at least 50 per cent.

"People are not going into work, and they're not going out," Hospitality NZ chief executive Julie White said.

"Our city centres are emptying, and even suburban centres are quieter."

She said some workplaces believed the stand-down system for close contacts would disrupt staffing and force cuts to services, production and operations.

The current isolation period for close contacts is 10 days from last exposure.

"It will be impossible to find new staff, especially at short notice," White said.

The Government has indicated it expects Omicron to spread quickly, perhaps to the point where within a few weeks the pandemic response will significantly shift.

In the second phase, testing and tracing will focus on protecting vulnerable groups and critical workers, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall said last week.

Yesterday, Verrall said 36 million extra rapid antigen tests had been secured.

She said when the Omicron outbreak peaked, Kiwis might need nine million tests a week.

Physicist Dr Dion O'Neale from Te Pūnaha Matatini said the tens of millions of rapid tests would help manage growing Omicron infection numbers.

He told the Science Media Centre the tests could return results in minutes, rather than days.

That made it possible to confirm infections much sooner after exposure, and for people to respond by self-isolating to break further chains of transmission, he said.

Immunologist Dr Dianne Sika-Paotonu said it was crucial to slow down Omicron's spread in communities for as long as possible.

She told the Science Media Centre if the strain was allowed to proliferate, hospitals would become overwhelmed, as they had been in Australia.

The Act Party said the Government announcement on rapid tests was self-serving, and the product of two U-turns.

"One, it is begging for rapid antigen tests that it used to ban," party leader David Seymour said.

"Two, it is now letting businesses import rapid antigen tests without them being confiscated."

He added: "Instead of preparing, the Government made them illegal and banned their import, before realising its mistake and stealing them from private businesses."

The Government has repeatedly rejected suggestions it seized any rapid antigen tests destined for private companies.