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Dear John -- The Epidemic Response Committee that I lead will reconvene this week (Tuesday to Thursday) to further examine the health and economic response to Covid-19 being taken by the Government. You can watch it live each day on my Facebook page by clicking here Scrutiny of the Government’s response is crucial to ensuring New Zealand is responding to Covid-19 as strongly and effectively as possible. Last week the Committee pushed the Government to ensure more testing was being carried out and to clarifying whether Police had the right powers. I’m pleased to see that in response the Government has stepped up testing in our communities, and greater clarity has been provided on essential businesses and enforcement by the Police. This week I will question whether we should have proper quarantining at the border. A large number of cases are coming in from overseas and National will continue to push for strict quarantine measures to be put in place. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we will again be joined by Sir David Skegg, a professor from Otago University. He gave valuable insights last week into the health response. We will also question Health Minister David Clark and Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield. On Wednesday we will have an economic focus. Former Chief Executive of BusinessNZ Phil O’Reilly will be our independent expert and we will question a range of leaders from industries including ports, tourism and agriculture. On Thursday we will examine the response from the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Education. You can watch the Committee live from 10am each day on my Facebook page, on Parliament TV (Freeview Channel 31 or Sky 86), or on the Parliament website. If you have any questions you want answers to, please email me at [email protected] The Epidemic Response Committee will continue to ask the questions that New Zealanders want answered so we can ensure the highest standards of health care and a fast-economic recovery from this crisis. We are all in this together. Regards
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