And so Ashley Bloomfield will leave the building in 4 months.
A decision he made late last year. Even though he has another year and a bit on his contract.
It’s been ten months since the Government’s own
experts said ‘all efforts’ should be made to introduce
saliva testing as soon as possible, but the Government has
delayed the roll out yet again, National’s Covid-19
Response spokesperson Chris Bishop says.
Covid-19
Response Minister Chris Hipkins today announced an
‘expansion’ of saliva testing, an announcement that is
remarkably similar to the last time he announced a saliva
testing expansion back on 26 May this year.
“In May
Minister Hipkins said saliva testing would commence ‘as
part of a phased roll out beginning in June’,” Mr Bishop
says.
“Today the Minister announced that saliva
It’s taken far too long for the Government move on saliva testing at the border but National welcomes the announcement nonetheless, National’s Covid-19 spokesperson Chris Bishop says. “National has been pushing for the Government to include saliva .
“The Government’s slowness to move on saliva
testing for our border workers is staggering.
“There
could be up to 20,000 people working at out border, yet just
339 saliva tests have been carried out over the past four
months.
“The Roche/Simpson report from September
last year said ‘all efforts should be made to introduce
saliva testing as soon as possible as part of the range of
testing methods being conducted’.
“It took another
four months for the Government to move to introduce
voluntary saliva testing but it’s still only used in three
MIQ hotels.
“Answers to written questions reveal