Photo: RNZ /Dom Thomas
One year ago today, all arrivals at New Zealand airports began to be taken to managed isolation hotels for a 14-day stay.
Since then, 130,600 people have passed through the 32 border hotels.
Joint head Megan Main said staff working at the facilities had made "considerable personal sacrifices" to keep those people safe.
More than 850 people have tested positive for Covid-19 during their stay - including about 95 current cases.
Main said MIQ had been a process of continuous improvement and the biggest learning curve had been adapting "at pace".
"If something goes wrong, we get together and learn from it. If our operating environment needs changing, we work together with colleagues from the Ministry of Health in particular to look at new policies we need to introduce. Anything we need to do to strengthen infection prevention control. It's faced paced," she said.