Covid-19 coronavirus: Govt looking at notifying people before MIQ spaces are released

Kiwis living overseas have experienced months of frustrations with the MIQ booking service and unavailability of spaces. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the Government was looking at making changes to the MIQ booking system, including notifying people when MIQ spots were being released.

She was also aware of the high threshold for allowing people to get spots on compassionate grounds, and said it was looking at what improvements could be made.

She told TVNZ she knew of people personally who were facing challenges to get an MIQ spot to come home, and said MIQ was experiencing high demand.

Kiwis living overseas have experienced months of frustration trying to secure MIQ spaces.

Ardern said 4000 people were going through MIQ every fortnight and she had been asking whether any more low-risk space available could be brought online, especially due to those in NSW now having to quarantine.

Ardern said she didn't want to bring back "imperfect facilities" and raise the risk of Covid getting out of the facilities.

While people could not use a bot (automated software) to book an MIQ spot, people were still using third parties to secure vouchers for them. "We are looking at whether or not we can reduce down some of that automated engagement."

It was a breach in the terms of service to use a bot or to pass on your password or login, Ardern said.

However, some Kiwis desperate to come back home believe they are having to compete with bots.

Wellington man Jonathan Brewer has been stuck in Singapore since March 2020, and is trying to get home by Christmas.

He told the Herald last month that he had laid a complaint with the Government's top watchdog, saying the MIQ booking site is simply not usable for those who play within the rules.

"I don't think it's possible to get a spot unless you use a bot or pay someone to do it for you. MBIE seems to think otherwise. So I've escalated to the Ombudsman."

Ardern told Newshub the vaccine hasn't meant the borders can reopen globally; the Government was looking at the next steps of what restrictions could be safely eased.

"We want to still have the freedom we have now and not have the health effects of Covid."

At a forum next Thursday, she would be receiving advice from Professor David Skegg and sharing her own thoughts about what the Government could do to "reduce some of the friction at the border" alongside the vaccine.

However, she said 158,000 people had come to NZ since the borders had closed, and "a chunk of those" were helping fill work shortages in horticulture and agriculture.

- More to come