Appendix I: Required Testing Order History

The COVID-19 Public Health Response (Required Testing) Order 2020 (Required Testing Order) has been amended several times since it commenced. This appendix provides a brief overview of the history of the Required Testing Order for additional context.

Overview of main changes: The Order as originally made

The Order commenced at 11.59 pm on 27 August 2020. It aimed to prevent, and limit the risk of, the outbreak or spread of COVID-19 by requiring one-off testing of higher-risk workers at Auckland International Airport, certain higher-risk workers at the Ports of Auckland and Port of Tauranga, and workers at managed isolation and quarantine facilities (MIQFs).

The first set of amendments

The COVID-19 Public Health Response (Required Testing) Amendment Order 2020 came into force from 11.59pm on 6 September 2020 and amended the Required Testing Order to require regular routine testing of certain higher-risk border workers at Auckland International Airport, Ports of Auckland and Port of Tauranga.

The second set of amendments

The COVID-19 Public Health Response (Required Testing) Amendment Order (No 2) 2020, which amended the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Required Testing) Order 2020 came into force at 11.59 pm on 16 September 2020. The amendments extend the testing and medical examination requirement to specified groups of affected persons at all airports and ports unless exempted. In relation to an airport, the exemption applies if an aircraft has not arrived at the airport from a location outside New Zealand for a period of at least 14 consecutive days. In relation to an airport, the exemption applies if an aircraft has not arrived at the airport from a location outside New Zealand for a period of at least 14 consecutive days.

The third set of amendments

The COVID-19 Public Health Response (Required Testing) Amendment Order (No 3) 2020 came into force at 11.59 pm on 25 November 2020. This amendment to the Order introduced further changes to mandatory testing requirements: - new duties on PCBUs to keep records and facilitate compliance, - requirements for workers to give certain information to their PCBU, - changes to some of the groups required to be tested and frequency of testing for some affected workers. In addition to these main changes, testing requirements relating to certain aircrew were added to the Required Testing Order in the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Air Border, Isolation and Quarantine, and Required Testing) Amendment Order 2020.

This fourth set of amendments

The COVID-19 Public Health Response (Air Border, Isolation and Quarantine, and Required Testing) Amendment Order 2021 came into force at 11.59 pm on 18 April 2021. This amendment to the Order enables quarantine-free travel (QFT) flights between New Zealand and Australia, the Cook Islands and Niue involving designated airlines and airports. To fly on a QFT flight, passengers need to meet a range of pre-boarding requirements, including health requirements such as not having any pre-existing condition that causes symptoms consistent with COVID-19.

This fifth set of amendments

The COVID-19 Public Health Response (Required Testing) Amendment Order 2021 comes into effect at 11:59 pm on 21 April 2021. This introduced changes to the Order to strengthen the border testing regime as a result of the new community cases announced in Auckland in February 2021, and the presence in New Zealand of more transmissible variants of COVID-19. The changes, which are explained in this guidance, involve: • extending mandatory testing requirements to new groups of border workers • increasing the mandatory testing frequency for certain higher-risk border workers to every seven days • allowing flexibility in the scope of sampling methods that can be used • clarifying testing cycle requirements to reflect that the time between tests must not exceed the length of the relevant testing cycle. These changes will take effect from 22 April 2021. A further change makes it mandatory that employers use the Border Workforce Testing Register which is kept, maintained and monitored by the Ministry of Health to keep the required records of testing for workers subject to mandatory testing. This change will take effect from 27 April 2021.