Jacinda Ardern’s ordered a review of the Crowne Plaza managed isolation facility from a “Delta perspective’’ before it reopens to returnees. It comes after Newsroom exposed faults with the Auckland hotel, writes political editor Jo Moir.
It’s been more than six weeks since Newsroom first raised questions about a public thoroughfare in downtown Auckland sharing close quarters with the exercise yard of an MIQ facility.
Two days after the country went into nationwide lockdown on August 17, the Government revealed a recent Sydney returnee who had been staying at the Crowne Plaza was the likely index case of the Delta outbreak.
While at the Crowne Plaza for three days the returnee exposed another family to the virus.
It’s suspected Delta transmitted to the family in the room adjacent when two doors were very briefly open at the same time.
After Newsroom raised questions about the walkway and the potential risk to members of the public, Director-General of Health, Doctor Ashley Bloomfield, confirmed it was a second walkway nearby that was being homed in on.
That walkway is in the atrium of the Crowne Plaza and a working theory was that the public could have been exposed to the virus while the Sydney returnee was checking into the MIQ hotel on August 7.
CCTV footage was used to track down six members of the public – all were eventually found over the course of a week and tested negative for the virus.
Subsequently the 2m high Perspex barrier in the atrium has been completely closed so the public aren’t sharing the same airspace as that of the MIQ facility.
This was done at the end of last week when the Crowne Plaza was emptied out of returnees who had finished their 14-day stay, ahead of a new intake in just over a week’s time.
While the facility is empty, the Prime Minister is using the time to do more checks.
“One of the things that enables us to do while the facility is in that state, is look into every other possibility,’’ Jacinda Ardern told Newsroom.
“It’s already had a ventilation review, but what I’d like is just a bit of a look from a Delta perspective, to see if there are other things we need to do to make sure we’ve covered all of our bases, even if we don’t know exactly what happened here,’’ she said.
National's Covid Response spokesperson Chris Bishop says the Crowne Plaza should have been assessed alongside infection control policies months ago.
"Delta is the most common strain of Covid turning up at the border, and it's ridiculous it's taken an outbreak - probably caused by the Crowne Plaza - for a review of MIQ facilities to take place,'' he told Newsroom.
Ardern confirmed the alterations to the Perspex barrier at the facility have been finished.
“Of course, those barriers are now up to the ceiling, so essentially a wall, so we want to see whether or not there is anything else that needs to be done.’’
The most recent audit of the Crowne Plaza was completed in June, but no issues with either public thoroughfare were raised as part of that review.
A community vaccination centre continues to operate adjacent to the delivery area for the Crowne Plaza.
Bloomfield says he has trust in those who are running the centre that all the appropriate checks have been done to keep the public safe.
