A series of Ministry of Health announcements have caught by surprise affected industries, who say they support efforts to tackle Covid-19 but want to be involved earlier in the process
Business sectors caught off-guard by another unexpected Covid-19 request from health officials say advance planning and engagement must improve for the good of the country’s response.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield last week called for surveillance testing of Auckland workers operating at Level 3 – particularly those in construction, hospitality and retail.
"The request has been made – not a requirement – but a request of those workers to, over the next two weeks, whether you have symptoms or not, to get two tests at least five days apart,” Bloomfield said.
While the Director-General was at pains to make clear the request was a voluntary one, the industries concerned were still taken aback by the fact they had not been given any prior warning.
Construction Health and Safety NZ chief executive Chris Alderson said the industry was proud of its proactive efforts to develop strong Covid-19 protocols, but the Bloomfield announcement had “absolutely caught us unaware”.
“The first thing we heard about it was when the calls started coming in.”
Alderson said construction companies supported the idea of surveillance testing in principle, but there were barriers to access which could have been addressed with more notice.
“Just like in any business, if we are caught back-footed and we don't understand the reasoning behind it or the thought that's gone in, that puts us in a difficult situation.”
It was difficult for workers to leave construction sites during their shifts to undergo testing, as that meant foregoing some of their wages. While mobile testing units could help, the majority of construction work was likely residential and at small sites scattered around the city.
Alderson said a rollout of rapid antigen testing, while not as accurate as PCR tests, could provide a more accessible means of testing workers as part of several layers of protection.
The construction industry had found the Government’s Covid response positive overall, but it would benefit from closer engagement by the Ministry of Health in future.
“Just like in any business, if we are caught back-footed and we don't understand the reasoning behind it or the thought that's gone in, that puts us in a difficult situation.”
The retail and hospitality sectors also expressed disquiet with the lack of advance warning, issuing a joint statement expressing concern.
Retail NZ chief executive Greg Harford said the sector was “surprised” by Bloomfield’s request, while Hospitality NZ chief executive Julie White described it as “a ludicrous suggestion while we operate contactless businesses, suffering from low revenue, and when some businesses cannot even open”.
The transportation sector had similar issues earlier in the Delta outbreak, when Bloomfield asked essential workers crossing between Auckland’s Level 4 lockdown and Level 3 parts of the country to undergo surveillance testing, even if they did not have symptoms.
“We are looking at how to put in place a system to check that these commuting essential workers are being regularly tested to support our efforts now and in the future,” he said at a September 2 press conference.
But later that day, the Ministry of Transport sent an email to the freight sector and others involved in supply chains, saying the call for tests “was just a personal recommendation from Ashley himself, it’s not a requirement” (although the Government did eventually make that testing mandatory).
Transporting New Zealand chief executive Nick Leggett told Newsroom the lack of clarity around testing had been “obviously very destabilising for an industry that’s already in crisis mode”.
“That was disconcerting: we didn’t understand the rationale, it felt as if somebody up on high was having a brain fart and then they had to build a policy and rules around that.”
Leggett said officials in the Ministry of Transport and elsewhere were doing a good job in stressful situations, but it seemed they were having to act after the fact when the Ministry of Health made announcements.
“We resent being told by senior officials that we should just watch the one o'clock announcements for news – that is not how this stuff should be conveyed, that is not how important information on policy changes should be conveyed ... especially when there are specifics involved that are particular to individual industries.”
“It's not really at all clear what the Government's strategy from here is, and I think the fact that you're getting essentially proclamations and edicts from the podium every few days around, increased testing, some of which ... are essentially encouragement, some of which purport to be mandatory instructions, speaks to that.”
National Covid-19 response spokesman Chris Bishop told Newsroom concerns about a lack of consultation were indicative of a wider problem, “which is that the Government looks like they’re making it up as they go along” after Level 4 and Level 3 had failed to get the country to zero cases.
“It's not really at all clear what the Government's strategy from here is, and I think the fact that you're getting essentially proclamations and edicts from the podium every few days around, increased testing, some of which ... are essentially encouragement, some of which purport to be mandatory instructions, speaks to that.”
Bishop said it was not good enough for Bloomfield and officials to be instructing industries on new public health measures without any warning, when sufficient planning in advance of such decisions would allow for a stronger response.
There had been ongoing problems with a lack of clarity around the legal requirements in some health orders, with the terms “require” and “should” used in the same order despite their different meanings.
A Ministry of Health spokeswoman told Newsroom that “the requirements of the public health response means that public consultation on new requirements, such as surveillance testing, is rarely possible or feasible”.
“The ministry does, however, regularly engage with other agencies and stakeholder groups who provide feedback on policy proposals and any subsequent amendments.”
The spokeswoman said there had been a positive response to the surveillance testing request, with Auckland employers proactively volunteering their workplaces as testing locations for their employees. However, the ministry did not directly answer a question about why it had opted for a voluntary, rather than mandatory, approach.
