The World Is Praising Jacinda Ardern
But I am not jumping on the bandwagon just yet
Zero covid community cases for more than a year.
Yes, you heard that right. In the middle of a global pandemic, what more can one ask for? New Zealand is widely recognized throughout the world as one of the best places to be in the middle of a pandemic, largely due to the efforts of Jacinda Ardern and her team. Swift, strict lockdowns, large-scale testing, and excellent border controls have been credited as being at the forefront of the response.
There have only been 26 covid-related deaths in the population of 4.9 million, and for the majority of the population, life has been fairly normal. The government has provided loans to struggling small businesses and supported those in isolation with a short-term absence payment.
So what is the problem, you ask?
Well…
Since May 2020, the country has closed its borders to the rest of the world. And while other countries have allowed their citizens back in and relaxed restrictions eventually, New Zealand has not budged. Granted, this is one of the reasons the country’s management of covid is so successful. However, over 2000 people (citizens, residents, and visa holders) are fighting to enter the country.
The country has a Managed Isolation Quarantine system called MIQ. The system works by encouraging users to fill in their details online and to select their date of arrival, thereby booking a spot in an isolation facility for their chosen date. At first, this seemed a robust strategy, but eventually, the cracks began to appear.
The fee for 2 weeks at an isolation facility was a whopping $3100 NZD for a single adult plus $950 for each additional adult and $450 for each additional child. This is way more than the average monthly net salary of $2800 NZD for a typical New Zealander. Despite the hefty fee, stranded citizens and residents are desperate to reunite with their families and enter the country.
The biggest flaw in the system is that it is free to book a spot, and a single user can book multiple spots. Within months, a common sight was to see no available spots online but daily reports showing that managed isolation hotels were running empty! Since it was free to book spots, robots, third parties, and stranded individuals went berserk, booking a range of dates if any of their flights were canceled. Very few users were considerate enough to remove any unused bookings from the system since you were only charged a fee if you ended up staying at the isolation facility.
As the complaints started increasing, the government used a scapegoat to face the media. This poor man, Mr. Faafoi, was thrown under the bus to field the ton of complaints that ramped up every week. He defaulted to his sole response, which was that the government was looking into the MIQ problem and implementing a solution when they found it.
The stories started pouring in from all parts of the world. A sick child who had gone overseas for treatment could no longer enter his home country again. A mother was separated from her kids for over a year. A young girl ran out of time to see her dad in New Zealand before he passed away. And hundreds of families were split and living in different countries. Just reading these stories brought tears to my eyes. A lot of them are citizens of the country now left stranded for no fault of their own. With each cry and plea, the rapid degradation of their mental health is made evident. Psychologists are turning away people with mental health issues since they have no room for them.
The government has done remarkably well in eliminating the virus from the community. Swift lockdown is the only reasonable answer in a country where hospitals are filled, even during flu season. It has shown us that its top priority is understandably the safety of its people. Unfortunately, the same level of empathy and priority has not been demonstrated towards the country’s own who are stuck outside.
According to the news, the MIQ system is receiving more than 100 complaints each week. There are speculations that bots are using and manipulating the system. Several users complain about the system's unfairness since it favors those who have high-speed internet connections and swift response reactions. Available spots are grabbed within 10 seconds. The older computer-illiterate population and those in rural communities with poor internet connections sadly have no chance.
Several rooms are also booked in advance by the government for athletes, expeditions, and recognized events. Moreover, the number of usable spaces in MIQ facilities has dropped by a further 15% due to grouping or ‘cohorting’ of arrivals. To minimize interaction between guests, a cycle of 18–20 days is allocated for each room. This would cover 4 days of infill, 14 days isolation, and 2 days cleanup after. If flights are canceled, then more rooms end up being unoccupied. In some cases, people who book flights are ineligible to travel if their pre-travel Covid test is positive. If the rooms are not freed up on the website in time, nobody else can book them.
Possible solutions to the MIQ conundrum are:
- To ask for an advance fee when a booking is made through the website. This would prevent double-booking by the same people, and only those who need the room will book it.
- To allocate more rooms in hotels towards returning citizens and residents. There can be tiers of accommodation provided, and those who need basic rooms can pay a lower price.
- To allow isolation at home and spend the money on security outside the house instead of at the hotel.
- To allow people in on a case-by-case basis. A person requesting an emergency entry to visit a dying family member should not need to play roulette to see if she finds a spot. The system currently discriminates against the blind and disabled.
- To show more empathy and understanding towards stranded Kiwis and residents. It is their home, too, and they deserve a right to return.
As I write this, a group of Kiwis stranded overseas has set up a group called ‘Grounded Kiwis’ and drafted a petition to reform the broken MIQ system. The frustration builds up each day as the government chooses to focus its attention elsewhere and leave the stranded fighting over rooms on the website.
To make things worse, recent posts on Facebook reveal that some unlucky users have been declined their hard-earned MIQ spots since they used multiple computers. Since it is so hard to find a spot, most users enlist the help of family members or multiple computers to stay online, refresh the page every 10 seconds, identify any open spots and select them. If that is not allowed, then the system is just sheer cruelty.
If the page is refreshed faster than 8 seconds, then users are locked out. If they refresh slower than 8 seconds, then they could potentially miss out on spots. So it has become a game of fine margins. Like beggars on streets ravaging for coins, we too are scrapping and searching for that one room. There is no satisfaction in gaining the room, too, since we know we have snatched it away from someone else who needs it almost as much as or more than we do.
The one shining light through this MIQ fiasco is the unity among stranded Kiwis. People have come together and supported each other from all parts of the world. Providing kind words of support, sending cards to those in MIQ, buying games for families stuck with kids, and sharing information have been some of the ways in which the community has united and stood up together.
And while the battle is not over by any means, we will keep fighting, praying, and supporting each other. As Martin King Luther said, ‘We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.’
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