Rooms in managed isolation have been sitting empty because some desperate returnees have been able to book more allocation vouchers than they need. The government is not putting a limit on the number of spaces people can lock in, despite other New Zealanders saying they feel stranded and helpless overseas.

It is mandatory to reserve a room before flying to the country, and the only people who can get rooms sooner than late February must either meet strict emergency allocation criteria, or snap up the very occasional cancelled booking by refreshing the website.
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On the allocation website returnees are directed to select their preferred dates for managed isolation, which are held for 48 hours while they book matching flights. To secure their managed isolation voucher, people enter their flight number. But Small said people have realised they do not actually need to be booked on that flight, for the voucher to be issued. They are hanging on to multiple options, and he feared people were not cancelling unused dates.

It is something Waikato travel agent Larissa Dunn had also encountered, including people who wanted a second date as back-up in case they missed their flight. "To me, that's just another waste of a room. I had a lady ring a few weeks ago and she was holding seven different spots in January," she said.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) runs managed isolation and since November it said about "five to eight rooms" have gone unused each day due to people who had booked multiple vouchers or had flights but no voucher. It said another seven or eight rooms had been empty each day because people with vouchers had not boarded their flights.
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New arrivals coming into New Zealand from high-risk countries will be required to have an additional Covid-19 test.In a statement, Minister for Covid-19 Response Chris Hipkins​ said that an additional test for returnees from higher risk countries, such as the United Kingdom, would be required from midnight December 31.

“The extra PCR test will be applied on ‘day zero’, as returnees who’ve been in the United Kingdom or the United States during the preceding 14 days go through New Zealand airport controls, or on ‘day one’, after they arrive at a managed isolation and quarantine facility,” Hipkins said.
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Pre-departure testing for UK arrivals to New Zealand“Keeping the virus out remains our biggest protection and as we’ve done all along, we regularly review our settings and make changes where they will make a difference,” Hipkins said.

“Plans for pre-departure risk reduction measures, including testing for people leaving the United Kingdom for New Zealand, are currently being worked on, with a view to implementing them from mid-January. These include selecting the most effective forms of testing in the circumstances. Additional risk measures for other countries are also being considered.
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All travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States will need a negative test result for Covid-19 before departing for New Zealand, the government has confirmed today.The new rules will come into effect from 15 January. Travellers from the UK and the US will still have to go through New Zealand's 14-day quarantine regime.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said work was already underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand. "The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last week, will require travellers from the UK or the US to have a written form, certified by a laboratory or another form of approved evidence, showing a negative result in the 72 hours prior to departure. It will come into force on flights arriving in New Zealand after 11.59pm on 15 January.

"Work is underway on similar measures for travellers using most other long haul routes to New Zealand. We expect to be in a position to provide more details within the next week - after we get a more complete picture of testing regimes and capabilities in overseas jurisdictions."
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Managed isolation and quarantine facilities are expected to have no spare rooms in the next two weeks.

According the latest MBIE managed isolation and quarantine daily 14-day forecast, spaces in MIQ facilities are "extremely limited" until March, but some may come available as travel plans changed.

MIQ facilities around the country had a combined operational capacity of 4500 rooms - in the next 14 days, 4299 of these rooms will be full with 5627 people staying in them. MBIE said rooms were occupied for a minimum of 14 days and additional time was needed for cleaning and maintenance. This meant this full 14 day period was considered as opposed to room availability on any single day. Rooms that were vacant on one day might be needed for an incoming flight the next day, so were not actually available.

For various reasons, such as international travel volatility, not all people who have vouchers would use them and MBIE said vouchers were released as they became available. In total, 93,898 people had been through MIQ facilities since March 26, 2020
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At the moment, only people coming from the UK and the US are required to produce a negative test – but Bloomfield is set to expand that to every country in the world.

The only exceptions are travellers from Australia, Antarctica and some Pacific Island nations.[

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In a statement released this afternoon, Covid-19 Recovery Minister Chris Hipkins said he had authorised the Director-General of Health to roll-out the requirement to cover all countries apart from Australia, Antarctica and some Pacific nations."New Zealand already has some of the most stringent border protection measures in the world. Today's amendments further strengthen that position in line with the government's overall elimination strategy," Hipkins said.
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New Zealanders travelling home from overseas are unable to book managed isolation as the system is full.

The government is yet to release dates beyond May, and it's stopped re-releasing people's cancelled bookings while it accounts for the loss of the Pullman Hotel. People logging into the booking website will encounter a calendar showing dates from today through till 31 May - each struck out with a little grey cross. Advice from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Sunday, to "keep checking" for regular cancellations, was promptly superseded yesterday by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), which runs the hotels. "Cancelled vouchers that would normally be released back into the Managed Isolation Allocation System will be kept as additional contingency for a short period as we navigate through this current situation," it said.
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Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the Pullman Hotel would likely be empty by Saturday, and stay offline for about two more weeks.

In a statement, MBIE said the Managed Isolation and Quarantine system had a contingency of around 400 rooms for emergencies, including when a facility can't accept new arrivals "as is currently the case with the Pullman Hotel".
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More managed isolation vouchers will be released for April and May over the next few days.

Managed isolation and quarantine officials stopped re-releasing people's cancelled vouchers at the start of the month, as the Pullman Hotel was gradually emptied of returning travellers. The vouchers were kept for contingencies as authorities investigated Covid-19 transmission at the hotel. Now some new dates are being released in small batches to avoid a system overload.
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Hundreds of people have flown to Australia soon after leaving managed isolation, but the Government has no way of knowing if people are abusing the system.

As pressure mounts on New Zealand’s MIQ facilities, with many people struggling to secure spots, figures obtained by Stuff raise questions about whether some people are using the country’s squeezed facilities as a transit lounge.
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In October and November alone, 549 people flew across the Tasman within 60 days of landing in New Zealand, taking advantage of the one-way travel bubble with Australia. More than 120 of them departed less than 21 days after they arrived, meaning some people would have left the country within a week of completing MIQ. National’s Covid Response spokesperson Chris Bishop said he’d heard allegations people “have been using New Zealand as a back door to Australia
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Of the 549 whose stay in the country was less than 60 days, most were New Zealand citizens or residents. Fifty-seven were not. More than 250 people had stayed less than 28 days, meaning at least some flew out of New Zealand within two weeks of completing managed isolation.

Since January 31, Australia has insisted people spend at least 14 days outside of MIQ before being eligible for the green zone travel arrangement, a change introduced after the Pullman cases came to light.
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