5. Question No. 5—COVID-19 ResponsePAUL EAGLE (Labour—Rongotai) to the Minister for COVID-19 ResponseQuestion No. 5—COVID-19 Response5. PAUL EAGLE (Labour—Rongotai) to the Minister for COVID-19 Response: What changes have been made as a result of what has been learned from recent cases associated with the Pullman Hotel managed isolation facility?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): Yesterday the Pullman hotel began receiving its first guests again after its recent shut down. This followed an intensive deep cleaning process a thorough investigation by public health officials and some changes to the way that the Pullman facility will operate in the future which includes: the way the Pullman's corridor ventilation system operates—corridor ventilation will now operate 24 hours a day as opposed to the two hours a day it was doing at the time of these incidents; returnees will be advised to close all their windows and their trickle vents in their rooms before they open their door to limit the risk of COVID19 making it out into the public spaces; returnees will be limited in the times that they're permitted to leave their rooms—this will now be done to a set timetable; and air filtration systems are being installed in the lifts later this week and that work should be completed by the end of this week.Paul Eagle: Is he confident the Pullman hotel is safe for all returnees?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Yes we've had good advice that the Pullman hotel is in fact a safe facility for us to be using. We've been carefully considering the health and wellbeing of returnees and the staff who work at that facility as we've made these decisions. That's the reason that we're initially only opening the facility to 50 percent of its capacity and only on the lower floors—to minimise the use of the lifts. Whilst that's happening and the air filtration systems are being upgraded as I said the CCTV system has been upgraded and strict new procedures have been implemented to limit people's movements around the Pullman.Paul Eagle: Are any of the changes made at the Pullman hotel being made across other facilities?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Yes absolutely. What we've learnt from the Pullman has resulted in changes in our systems and processes across all 32 facilities. Recent changes that we've made include: a requirement for returnees from most countries to have a negative test 72 hours prior to their departure; day zero day one testing is now in place—so basically people are tested within 24 hours of arriving in the country. More robust infection and prevention control measures have been put in place as a result of the lessons from the Pullman: increased cleaning of shared spaces is now being done the requirement for returnees to remain in their rooms past their post - day 11/12 test is now in place and further restrictions around the movements of returnees at all of our facilities is also in place. These are on top of the measures that were already in place including physical distancing the use of masks hand sanitising cleaning protocols and quite significant work in the high movement areas to make sure there can be little spread of the virus.Chris Bishop: Is the report into the Pullman hotel one report or is there more than one because the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment website says reports" plural; and when will the Government make the report public?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Speaking to the question that the member is about to ask me we're intending to make the health advice that said that we should reopen the Pullman—we will make that report public this week so that people can see the advice that we have made that decision on. There are other reports that touch on the issues around the Pullman including the case investigations for the cases involved.Paul Eagle: What auditing is occurring to ensure that managed isolation and quarantine facilities follow public health guidelines?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: The Ministry of Health and our managed isolation continue to regularly review policies and processes to ensure that they remain fit for purpose and to reduce the risk of the spread of COVID-19 within our managed isolation facilities. There are regular inspections including by agencies like the Ombudsman to ensure that these facilities are safe. The Pullman has been an important part of our system it's received consistently good feedback from returnees and we're looking forward to seeing it back up and running at full capacity when it's safe to do so."