Direction under s 70 of the Health Act 1956
On 24 March 2020, the Prime Minister, with the agreement of the Minister of Health, issued an epidemic notice under s 5 of the Epidemic Preparedness Act 2006 in respect of COVID- 19. The epidemic notice allows the use of special powers by Medical Officers of Health, pursuant to s 70 of the Health Act 1956, for the purpose of preventing the outbreak or spread of COVID-19.
For the purpose of preventing further outbreak or spread of COVID-19, which I consider to be a significant risk to the public, I, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, Director-General of Health, make the following direction under sections 70(1)(ea) and (f) of the Health Act 1956:
This direction applies to: • any household member of a person who has attended the locations of interest at the times and dates as set out in Schedule 1 or who has been categorised as a close contact.
I require these people to isolate or quarantine at their usual place of residence (which for visitors, includes accommodation), except as required to report and submit for testing as directed, until the person who has been at a location of interest, or who has been categorised as a close contact, has received a negative day 5 test result, or until after an earlier negative test result if contact between the two people had ceased.
The direction does not apply to persons who are required to provide an essential health service (being a service provided for the purpose of assessing, improving, protecting, or managing the physical or mental health of individuals or groups of individuals) as long as the following conditions are met:
1. The person is vaccinated, having received 2 injections of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine; 2. The close contact of the household member has been tested for COVID-19 following the exposure event and has received a negative result; 3. The negative test result must be from a RT-PCR test (a test for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) viral ribonucleic acid using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction); and 4. No household members have symptoms of COVID-19.
Failure or refusal to comply with this direction is an offence under s 72 of the Health Act 1956.
The section 70 direction dated 18 August 2021 is revoked and replaced by this direction.
Signed:
______Dr Ashley Bloomfield Director-General of Health 20 August 2021, 6pm
Schedule 1 Locations of interest https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid- 19-health-advice-public/contact-tracing-covid-19/covid-19-contact-tracing-locations- interest#current