Photo / Mark MitchellJason Walls is a political reporter for the New Zealand HeraldCovid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins has admitted the Government could have moved earlier when it came to making the border worker testing register mandatory. But Hipkins said making the register compulsory when it was first unveiled would have been impractical. Last week, Hipkins made an order which made it mandatory for all border workers to use the Ministry of Health's National Register to track Covid-19 testing. "But [the register] will only tell us when someone has been tested – it won't necessarily tell us when they needed to be tested," Hipkins said. "We do have to rely on employers determining who of those people on the register need to be tested and when they need to be tested," Hipkins said.

Source: New Zealand Herald April 17, 2021 23:37 UTC