Sir Ian Taylor is about to begin the first trial in New Zealand of a self-isolation system aimed at business people.
Approved by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, he will travel from Dunedin to the US, and will use a range of New Zealand made technologies to keep him safe.
“We’re just making sure that we capture all of the possibilities properly,” Sir Ian says.
He departed Dunedin this afternoon, where he took a saliva swab test from local company Micro-Gem.
It’s non-invasive, and able to return a result within 27 minutes, which was negative.
He will also take an Orbis test before leaving New Zealand, a simple pin prick in his thumb.
“It will tell me the level of my immunity depending on my vaccination and that's something I had never heard of.
“This test is very important as we move forward and start to think about is the vaccine actually working, has it worn off?”
The Dunedin based businessman will spend a week in the US where he will attend meetings in Los Angeles and San Francisco, before returning back to Auckland.
“I’m going to try and do it as much like a business trip as possible.
“It was really great that I was able to get alongside the Government’s 150 self-isolation programme, and what we hope to do is go beyond what they're doing, and this will obviously look like overkill, I’ve got every device and tool available,” Sir Ian says.
One of those devices is a wristband that’ll monitor him is self-isolation.
Sir Ian says it’ll create a virtual fence, taking away all the cost and manpower that is currently being used in MIQ facilities.
“There’s no way I can leave the premises because I’ll be breaking through that virtual wall and the alarms go off.
“I think the main part of this exercise is to show what the options are.It might be able to give us a way forward.”
Ernst and Young will be writing a full report on his return, to present to the Government.
“There's some goals. some objectives that we want to provide and some evidence we need to gather and you can't put systems in place without having done legitimate trials," Sir Ian says.
“At this stage, I've got no idea which way it's going to go, hopefully we will be able to enter into a meaningful discussion with the officials around Ministry of Health, Ministry of Business, NZ Trade and Enterprise to mean that people stuck overseas can now look forward to being able to come back with a system that keeps the border safe but gets them home.”
Sir Ian Taylor will arrive back in New Zealand on Sunday, November 7.
SHARE ME