Air Commodore Darryn Webb and Housing Minister Megan Woods — appointed the minister in charge of the facilities — announced the outcome at Parliament yesterday.
Dr Woods called it a system under stress and Air Com Webb said it was under strain.
He said the system needed to be ramped up to meet demand.
Demand continued to grow, the system was complex and they needed more resources for things such as tests and to communicate with returnees, Air Com Webb said.
Dr Woods said the country needed to get it right, as it was a situation that was going to be "with us for some time".
She said the Government was determined to put a system in place for as long as needed to protect the gains made, and signalled it could be in place until at least October.
The audit said there needed to be better oversight of passengers as they were transferred from the airport to managed isolation or quarantine facilities.
It said an immediate review of the policies of various government agencies on the wearing of personal protective equipment was also required. Different entities appeared to have different policies about the wearing of PPE.
The recommendations were among several from the audit commissioned over a week ago by Air Com Webb, who has taken over the MIQ facilities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered the review on June 17.
Dr Woods said a range of improvements were under way in response to the rapid review, which was conducted by senior officials from Defence Force, Corrections and Police.
Dr Woods called it "a system under stress".
She said there was no "playbook" for this type of pandemic and no system was going to be perfect. She said they could never guarantee it would be fail-safe but the enhanced measures would further reduce risk.
So far, 22,000 people had been through managed isolation and she believed the facilities had done their job stopping people at the border.
There were 6000 people in quarantine and she expected that to rise to 7000.
They planned to separate people in isolation so they would not come into contact with members of the public, and that included using the old Jetstar domestic terminal.
Dr Woods said they would be making sure a 12-day Covid-19 test was a priority, so they could increase the turnaround and people could leave at the end of the two weeks.
The Government would be increasing the resourcing of on-the-ground defence staff and 238 defence staff were already supporting the system.
Air Com Webb said they were also ensuring consistent operational delivery, no matter what facility people were in.
There would be a formal system of communicating with returnees before they departed, at arrival and throughout their stay. They hoped this would help reduce some of the negative behaviour they were responding to in the facilities, Air Com Webb said.
People would not be allowed to leave managed isolation facilities until they returned a negative Covid test, which would be taken on day 12.
Dr Woods said they were not satisfied the processes in place were robust enough yet to re-allow exemptions.
Air Com Webb said there were 20 flights a week and now it was 30 and growing. More than 4000 people were in managed isolation at present and the facilities were in four different cities.
The Government had 6500 beds available for isolation and the criteria for facilities were high. He said they had a week’s capacity at present and were seeking to extend that to 14 days.
The Government also wanted to work with the airlines to help manage the demand and to ensure that when people booked a ticket, there would be a bed ready for them.
Dr Woods said they did not want to stop New Zealanders’ ability to come home, but they did need to smooth demand.
She said they needed to make sure no-one leaving facilities would put New Zealanders at risk, but that did rely on those people "wanting to rejoin the team of five million" to make sacrifices — such as isolating for 14 days — that people here had already made.
Air Com Webb said they did not always have certainty on who was coming into the country until they boarded the plane and the Government’s present accuracy was 7%, give or take.
Dr Woods said everything going into the isolation facilities was checked first. She was not aware of any illicit substances going into the facilities.
Air Com Webb said they had strengthened the police presence at the Jet Park quarantine facility in Auckland.
He said that, ideally, they were trying to match carefully the hotel-level support, DHB-level support and all-of-Government-level support.
He said having facilities in fewer areas was the preferred approach.
Dr Woods said they were confident they were now able to carry out Covid-19 testing on both day 3 and day 12.
They were still deciding on whether they would charge returning Kiwis and the legal implications concerning this.
She said it was about fairness and the taxpayers of New Zealand were being asked to pick up a fairly high bill.
The MIQ facilities are responsible for isolating arrivals to New Zealand for 14 days and are doing so in 21 hotels in four cities: Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington and Christchurch.
There are 20 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, after four new cases were confirmed yesterday. All are in arrivals, not in the community.
