Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she thought testing was taking place for all border workers, asymptomatic or not, before Auckland's latest Covid-19 outbreak, but it was not.
"Our view was that would be quite wide testing, including asymptomatic. What appears to have been the case is that it was tending not to necessarily have that level of coverage across border staff."
The Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said yesterday that there was not testing failure at the border, he described it as a miscommunication.
Ardern told Morning Report she had heard of some reluctance around asymptomatic testing, which was not on and people working in areas of high risk need to be tested symptoms or not.
She also added weekly testing wasn't a silver bullet and was only part of the measures taken to ensure protection at the border, which also includes regular health checks and PPE.
"A weekly testing regime is not foolproof," Ardern said.
"You can have someone tested on a Monday who may touch the handle of something or be in contact with someone at risk on a Wednesday, be symptomatic for a period and not be tested again until the following week."
"You can have someone tested on a Monday who may touch the handle of something or be in contact with someone at risk on a Wednesday, be symptomatic for a period and not be tested again until the following week."
Ardern said almost all border staff have now been tested, regardless of whether they have symptoms or not.
