Kiwi software developer Sam Deuchrass has travelled the United States for work three times this year, been fully vaccinated there, and tested negative for Covid-19 over 70 times.

But back in New Zealand, he won’t receive a vaccination certificate to prove his double-jab status – at least not yet. Deuchrass received his first vaccination in Georgia in April, and his second in North Carolina in the weeks following. “I walked into Walmart, and it was that easy. They [United States] are that on top of the entire vaccination process. Say what you want about [their] initial handling [of their Covid 19 response], but the vaccination process is so efficient,” he said.
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Deuchrass arrived back in New Zealand on September 30. When he inquired about getting his USA vaccine certificate converted to a viable certificate here in New Zealand, or his vaccination status at least documented, he was told by MIQ health officials to get in touch with the Ministry of Health.

The Ministry directed him to his local GP, who then directed him back to the Ministry.

“I gave the Ministry of Health a ring a month ago, and they said, ‘hey, this is not the procedure, this is not the way to do things, we don’t have a pathway, so we can’t help you’.”

When he called his local GP in Invercargill, he was told they hadn’t been advised on how to handle vaccinated individuals returning from overseas. “My doctor said the best they can do is keep a photo of my CDC vaccine certificate (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), but they can’t actually add it to my national health index. The CDC [certificate] has been distributed to over 150 million people in the United States.”

At the beginning of September, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said a system for verifying overseas vaccinations was being worked on as a matter of urgency. On Wednesday, however, the Ministry said a process for those vaccinated overseas was not yet available, but “these are all things we are working through”.

The order, otherwise known as the Covid-19 Public Health Response (vaccinations) Order 2021 has currently only mandated the Pfizer vaccine for border workers. It's understood the announcement will come at Wednesday's 1pm media conference after the Ministry of Health u-turned on its stance, now amending the Border Order to recognise other vaccines for workers

The government is revealing changes to MIQ today, with stays halving from 14 to seven days, followed by isolation at home for three days.

Under the new MIQ regime, which will begin from 14 November, arrivals must be fully vaccinated and will be tested on days 0, 3 and 6 and undertake a rapid antigen test before leaving MIQ, before a day-9 test at home.

He said this will free up about 1500 rooms a month in MIQ. Some of this will be taken up by community cases but some will go into the booking system for travellers from overseas.

The second step will reopen the border to low-risk travellers from Samoa, Tonga and Tokelau without isolation.This one-way quarantine-free travel will begin from 8 November.

The third step will allow more people to isolate at home, available to increasing numbers of travellers in the first quarter of 2022.

He said changes at the border will be linked to the traffic light system
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More than 1000 fake vaccination bookings have hampered efforts to get people jabbed in Tairāwhiti, the region with the lowest Covid-19 vaccination rates.

In the area including Gisborne and the East Cape, just 77 percent of people have had their first dose of the vaccine, and only 62 percent have had their second jab. Both rates are the lowest rate in the country for a region. Health authorities have been working hard to drive up vaccination rates in Tairāwhiti. Di Akurangi, a communications advisor for the local DHB Hauora Tairāwhiti, said it was a surprise to see a surge of 1300 bookings recently and then a shock to see that they were all fakes. "Look I had to laugh about it because I'm thinking 'oh gee, our comms are really working here in Tairāwhiti', on the other hand I'm thinking 'oh no, our team's now got to go through a process to delete all of those and that's a process in itself too that the Ministry of Health actually assists with so, definitely time wasting."
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At 2pm 19,823 people were moved into the queue — this was randomised as part of the lobby process, and is the lowest number we have seen for the lobby events. This number grew as people entered the queue throughout the room release (these people go to the back of the queue). There were 21,368 people in the queue in total.

The number of people entering the lobby and queue has been decreasing each room release – today’s total of 21,368 is roughly 10,000 people less than we saw during the first lobby event (31,900).

Rooms started being released at 2pm and were gone by 3:28pm. 3,516 people from 97 countries managed to secure MIQ vouchers – that’s across 2,103 rooms.

Approximately 43% of people who participated in the room release today were based in New Zealand. This does not necessarily mean these people were looking to travel overseas and come back – they could be booking on behalf of other people based overseas.

More than 26,500 people have secured vouchers through the last 5 room releases.

Dates for today’s release were available across December and January. Similar to last week, today’s release was more conservative than previous room releases due to the growing number of COVID-19 community cases, particularly in Auckland and Waikato. We did not release any more rooms for October or November to ensure we have sufficient capacity to accommodate community cases in our facilities.

December and January tracked fairly evenly in terms of selling out. The earliest dates in December and latest dates in January sold out first. Only 25 December – 1 January dates were available at 3:20pm.

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Rooms released today
December — 1,000
January – 1,103

Top countries (by departure point)
Note: This is people not rooms:
Australia — 714 passengers
Great Britain — 424 passengers
USA — 423 passengers
India — 400 passengers
China — 180 passengers
United Arab Emirates — 125 passengers
Canada —100 passengers
Hong Kong — 89 passengers
Singapore — 71 passengers
South Africa — 65 passengers
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The door to New Zealand’s fifth – and smallest – virtual lobby have now closed, 90 minutes after people logged in around the world and hoped.

The previous four virtual lobbies have involved the release of between 2900 and 3800 managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) rooms, compared with just 2100 at 2pm on Thursday. All were in December and January. Soon after it opened at 2pm, one person posted on Facebook that they were near 14,000th in the queue. Someone else said they were about 19,000th. All the rooms were gone by about 3.30pm. “Another waste of time,” one posted. “Heartbreaking every time,” said another.
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While thousands of stranded New Zealanders pin their hopes on an imminent MIQ announcement, the lobby system for bookings is already being gamed by a third party group.

A company is using false passport numberss to secure vouchers for returnees who pay $270 - to the frustration of others who've missed out.

Marine engineer Andrew Black became stuck in Perth after a work trip to Australia in December, and said it was "unbelievable" he had to compete against fake accounts.
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In messages posted online, the company MIQ Booking explains it can add several passengers per booking, with false passport numbers, to secure multiple spots in the queue. MIQ Booking - who could not be reached for comment - claimed it would give people a better chance of a spot.
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In the meantime Joint Head of MIQ Megan Main said officials were changing the passport entry requirements for the virtual lobby to prevent people using fake details. In a statement she said there had been a number of "checks and verifications" after each lobby event, to identify any fake passport numbers used in bookings. "Anyone who uses a fake passport number to book a space in MIAS has breached the Terms of Use and their voucher will be cancelled. We have not seen widespread use of fake details in any of the lobby events," she said. "The changes will be detailed on our website in due course."

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Important update: 28 October 2021
We have made a significant change to the passport entry requirements for the virtual lobby. Please read the new instructions in the Passport Number Requirements section below.
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Understand the passport number requirements to enter the lobby:

• New update: You will need to enter the passport numbers of all passengers travelling in your group to participate in the room release (see the section below for more information on passport number requirements).
  • A passport number can only be used once for the release.
  • You are not able to use the same passport number(s) across multiple devices or browsers.
  • Passport numbers and the number of people travelling cannot be changed in the system once a date has been secured.]

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Booking for a group or a couple
If you are travelling as a group or a couple, only ONE member of the group can now enter the lobby. This is a change from the previous requirements where each member of the group could participate in the release – you cannot do this anymore. One group = one lobby entry.

Your nominated person must select the number of passengers in your group from the drop-down box and enter the passport number for each person travelling.

If you gain access to the website, you cannot book for more or less people than what is declared in the lobby. E.g. If you enter 2 passengers in the lobby, you cannot book for 3 or more people.

The number of passengers in your group and the passport number(s) must be an exact match to the information entered in the Managed Isolation Allocation System website. If these do not match, you will not be able to secure a room. If you believe the details you entered into the lobby are correct, you can update your details in the Managed Isolation Allocation System website to match what you entered in the lobby. Note: you cannot change the details you entered into the lobby.

Passport numbers and the number of people travelling cannot be changed in the system once a date has been secured.
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Just one guest stayed at the Grand Mercure managed isolation hotel in Wellington last week, where dozens of staff were working.

The person was involved in an emergency medical evacuation.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Managed Isolation and Quarantine confirmed the 102-room hotel had just one guest between October 21 and October 28.It meant 88 isolation rooms went empty over that period, as well as 13 quarantine rooms. Up to 50 staff were still working at the facility during that time, looking after the single guest. “Other guests have not been staying at this facility to maintain the cohorting system between incoming and arriving guests,” the statement said.

“The last cohort of 65 returnees left on October 21, the facility then required 2-3 days for cleaning. The next cohort of 93 returnees arrived at the facility yesterday, October 28.”

The cohorting system meant people who arrived at the same time, usually on the same plane, were isolated together in one of the managed isolation facilities around the country. According to the MIQ website, the cohorting cycle can take 18 to 20 days, and after that the hotels sit empty for up to two days as they are deep cleaned. Up to 15 per cent of rooms were expected to sit empty because of the cohorting.
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Cabinet met today to review alert levels in Auckland and parts of Waikato, which are currently at alert level 3, step 1. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says Cabinet has decided in principle to move Auckland to alert level 3 step 2 next Tuesday at 11.59pm. Parts of Waikato will move down to step 2 of alert level 3 from tomorrow 11.59pm
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Cabinet has decided in principle to move Auckland to the second step down of level 3 from next Tuesday, 9 November, at 11.59pm. Ardern says the approach is to take a "steady and conscious change" in restrictions. "For those who have concerns about any easing, I would say that because of high vaccination rates in Auckland we can move forward with greater confidence and we will continue to have very strong and clear public health guidance on how businesses that are eligible to reopen, do so."
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New Zealand will begin testing self-isolation instead of MIQ for vaccinated people this year, with a new border system based on low, medium and high-risk entry paths kicking in from early 2022, the government has announced.
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The home isolation trial was expected to run from October through December, Ardern said."Key to this is maintaining our elimination strategy. The advice is clear, if we open our borders now we will lose the freedoms and advantages we have achieved so far," she said.

She announced the new border system would assess people's risk individually:

• Low risk: Vaccinated travellers from low risk countries: no isolation required
• Medium risk: Vaccinated travellers from medium risk countries: modified isolation requirements
• High risk: Unvaccinated travellers and all travellers from high risk countries: 14 days in MIQ

The system would also require pre-departure tests and further testing for travellers coming into New Zealand, and would be backed by moves to speed up the vaccination rollout.
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How to add your overseas COVID-19 vaccinations to the CIR
You can now apply to have a record of a vaccination administered overseas added to New Zealand’s COVID Immunisation Register (CIR). This process may take up to 14 days.

As well as the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, 23 approved vaccines can be entered into the CIR:

1. Anhui Zhifei Longcom – ZF2001
2. Bharat Biotech – Covaxin
3. CanSino – Ad5-nCoV
4. Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB) – CIGB-66
5. Chumakov Center – KoviVac
6. FBRI – EpiVacCorona
7. Gamaleya – Sputnik Light
8. Gamaleya – Sputnik V
9. Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) – Ad26.COV2.S
10. Kazakhstan RIBSP – QazVac
11. Medigen – MVC-COV1901
12. Minhai Biotechnology Co – SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (Vero Cells)
13. Moderna – mRNA-1273
14. Oxford/AstraZeneca – AZD1222
15. Serum Institute of India – Covishield (Oxford/AstraZeneca formulation)
16. Serum Institute of India – COVOVAX (Novavax formulation)
17. Shifa Pharmed Industrial Co – COVID-19 Inactivated Vaccine
18. Sinopharm (Beijing) – BBIBP-CorV (Vero Cells)
19. Sinopharm (Wuhan) – Inactivated (Vero Cells)
20. Sinovac – CoronaVac
21. Takeda – TAK-919 (Moderna formulation)
22. Vaxine/CinnaGen Co. – COVAX-19
23. Zydus Cadila – ZyCoV-D

Any overseas vaccination entered in the CIR is an administrative record, not a clinical record. It does not guarantee that you will be recognised as fully vaccinated in New Zealand, and it does not mean that you will be automatically eligible for My Vaccine Pass (for use inside New Zealand).

My Vaccine Pass
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Requesting My Vaccine Pass if you’ve had COVID-19 vaccinations overseas
From late November, you will be able to request My Vaccine Pass for use within Aotearoa New Zealand if you have received any of the following approved vaccines overseas and submitted this information to the CIR. The eight vaccines accepted for My Vaccine Pass, approved by the COVID Vaccination Technical Advisory Group, are: 

1. Pfizer/BioNTech
2. Janssen (Johnson & Johnson)
3. AstraZeneca (Oxford) 
4. AstraZeneca/Covishield (Serum Institute of India) 
5. Moderna
6. Sinopharm 
7. Sinovac (CoronaVac)
8. Covaxin (Bharat Biotech).

My Vaccine Pass
International Travel Vaccination Certificate
International Travel Vaccination Certificates only show details of COVID-19 vaccinations administered in New Zealand – even if you’ve added your overseas vaccinations to the CIR.

If you received one or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine overseas, you should also request a certificate from that country in order to travel outside of New Zealand.

If you’ve had both your doses overseas you won’t be able to request an International Travel Vaccination Certificate from the New Zealand Ministry of Health.

International Travel Vaccination Certificates
Page last updated: 17 November 2021
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