Test results from Covid-19 surface testing carried out at the Americold cool store in Auckland are due back "today or tomorrow", Grant Robertson says, and a new wage subsidy scheme is also being discussed later today.
The Finance Minister, speaking this morning to TVNZ1's Breakfast, said ESR had been carrying out testing at the facility after the first-known, or "index", case of the second outbreak was found to work there.
As of yet, no link between this particular strain of Covid-19 and the border has been found, so some have asked whether it could have been imported into the country on a surface or product.
Mr Robertson said while the science around whether Covid-19 can survive long-term on surfaces is "controversial", testing had been carried out extensively at Americold.
"The strain here, the B111, isn't one that we've seen in those isolation facilities or certainly the results that we've had from them, so that makes it a little bit of a mystery for us," he said.
"Clearly we're focusing on the Americold cool store because that appears to be where the person who had the infection first was - obviously that then opens up the possibility that we could be talking here about surfaces and not people.
"Now that's a controversial area - the World Health Organisation have said they don't believe it could be carried on surfaces, the Chinese government have recently come out and said it may well have been in their cases as well.
"ESR has gone in and tested all of those surfaces and we're awaiting those results hopefully today or tomorrow."
Mr Robertson admitted testing of border staff had fallen short in previous weeks, saying the Government's "understanding" of testing levels "was not actually what was happening.
"It is now - there's been an enormous amount of testing over the last few days of border and managed isolation staff.
"It's not that no one was being testing, it's just that not that everybody had been tested - that's disappointing, but we're on top of it now."
Speaking about calls for further wage subsidies, Mr Robertson confirmed that the details of a new scheme would be discussed with Cabinet this afternoon.
"The wage subsidy extension is still open for applications until September 1, and that's for people who have had that 40 per cent revenue drop - we're expecting because of this new set of restrictions that more people will apply for that," he said.
Mr Robertson said the subsidy discussed this afternoon will be a "new scheme", rather than an extension to the extension, and will be "nationwide".
In terms of how the country could afford to continue wage subsidies, Mr Robertson said there had been a lower-than-expected spend on the current wage subsidy extension, and he expects the $3.9 billion budget for that will cover the new scheme also.
"So we do actually have an underspend which at this stage I think will be enough to cover."
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