Going hard and early has put us in an enviable position.

Globally, the pandemic is getting worse, not better. In New Zealand, as an increasing number of Kiwis return home, we have cases that have cropped up at the border. It’s important to note that they are all in managed isolation. There is no community transmission. There have been over 80,000 tests in the last fortnight and there are no cases in the community.

In addition, our economy is now one of the most open in the world. According to the chief economist of a major global economic agency S&P Asia-Pacific, “New Zealand definitely is one of those economies that has exited the most severe periods of the pandemic first, and that clearly was just because what that allows the economy to do is reopen those face-to-face service activities that are so important for the labour market.”

However, as more New Zealanders are returning home, the strength of our border controls matters more than ever.

We’ve taken a cautious approach at the border. In fact, we have one of the strictest border regimes in the world.

Everyone returning to New Zealand must go into a managed facility for two weeks upon arrival, and undergo two tests during their stay – one at day three, and another at day twelve.

No one is to leave manged isolation without testing negative for COVID. For a short time, however, this protocol was not upheld. As the Prime Minister has said, that wasn’t good enough.

Most returning New Zealanders who left managed isolation without being tested had seen out their two weeks symptom-free. Therefore, we can be confident these people did not leave incubating the virus, and continued surveillance testing in communities supports this.

However, cases where returning New Zealanders were granted a compassionate exemption to leave managed isolation early, also without being tested for COVID, posed a greater risk.

This represented an unacceptable failure of the system and cannot be repeated, and the Government has acted swiftly to further strengthen our border controls.

We suspended compassionate exemptions, and this will continue until Ministers have confidence in the discipline and rigour of our border controls.

We put the Assistant Chief of Defence, Air Commodore Darryn Webb, in charge of all managed isolation and quarantine facilities, including processes for people exiting. He reports regularly to Ministers and can access military logistics, operational expertise, and personnel to assist in running these facilities.

We also ramped up our testing at the border. That means regular health checks and asymptomatic testing of all border workers at airports, staff in managed isolation and quarantine facilities, and international air and maritime crew.

All New Zealanders made sacrifices to become COVID-free. None of us wants to see a second wave of cases.

This bump in the road does not change our COVID status. There is still no evidence of community transmission in New Zealand, and we always assumed new cases would arrive at the border.

Our challenge continues to be detecting any cases in isolation and stopping the spread there. We remain absolutely committed to keeping COVID out of our communities.

-Priyanca Radhakrishnan List MP based in Maungakiekie, Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister for Ethnic Communities