Isolating returnees say bookings are back on for exercise buses at an Auckland MIQ hotel, despite a slip up that saw a returnee who had tested positive for Covid-19 bundled onto a bus with more than a dozen other people.
Fourteen guests at the Grand Mercure had their isolation stay extended by two weeks after another the returnee whose positive test result came back while they were out walking was allowed back on the bus for the return trip to the hotel with all the others.
Last week exercise trips were suspended at a total of four Auckland facilities pending an investigation.
Meanwhile there were also 11 new cases of Covid-19 in MIQ - 10 of them arrived on the same flight from India.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said regarding the flight from India: "Case investigations will be under way today and I don't have more details about what the relationship between them is.
"We do know the flight that comes through the UAE comes from India and we do tend to be getting a higher number of cases from that flight, so we're having a good close look at whether there's anything else going on there.
"The feedback I have had so far is that all of these people are producing evidence of a pre-departure test but there is still a risk because people could get Covid-19 after a pre-departure test so it does seem to be quite a high number from this flight so we're taking a good close look at it."
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Counterfeit pre-departure Covid-19 test results were a possibility, Hipkins said.
Customs was looking "very closely" at the records people were providing but could not conduct long investigations like Immigration could, he said.
"We're going to have a look at whether there is any evidence of this happening with this particular flight."
"There are regular spot checks going on about [fake results] but because we're seeing a higher number of cases coming through this particular route, we'll be looking at it very closely."
Hipkins acknowledged mistakes had been made at the Grand Mercure.
"When someone is okay to get on a bus they get a wristband. If they get a [positive] test result or they start presenting with symptoms that wristband is removed.
"In this one particular case there was an instance where the person's wristband was not removed after they had complained of some symptoms. That was a mistake and it shouldn't have happened.
"My understanding - they were asymptomatic prior to getting on the bus. They weren't showing symptoms on the bus or when they were doing their exercise, but about a day or so earlier they said they'd had a headache, but the headache was put down to the fact there'd been some construction work outside the hotel and it had kept them awake at night.
"Either way the standard operating procedure should have been at that point for the person's wristband should have been removed because they had been reporting symptoms.
"My understanding is the test result came in at about 32 minutes past the hour, and the person arrived back at the hotel on the hour. And it's about a half an hour bus journey.
"So it's possible they were either on the bus or boarding the bus when that positive test result came back in."
Hipkins said despite the failings in this particular case, the exercise buses were a "well-managed process".
There was also some "bubble breaching" on the bus, which was being investigated, Hipkins said.
The exercise bus trips would not be stopped, he said.
"We still need to allow people the ability to stretch their legs. Being in a hotel room for two weeks without being able to get out of your room is a long time but we have to make sure we are doing that very safely."
As for those people who had to stay longer in MIQ because they had been exposed to a person with Covid-19, Hipkins said they would not be charged for the extra time, and he would consider waiving fees for their initial two weeks as well.
Hipkins said he still had confidence in Brigadier Jim Bliss, the NZDF head of MIQ.
"I think he's doing a really good job. I think the people working in these facilities are doing a really good job in a very difficult set of circumstances. There were some mistakes made here and they worked very quickly to fix those."