There have been inaccurate posts circulating on social media about our future support to the All of Government response to COVID-19.

Here is what we’re doing:

We’re currently providing support to the All of Government response to COVID-19 under the name Operation (OP) Protect.

Since early April we’ve been contributing personnel in a range of planning functions across Government agencies, involving up to 80 personnel at times.

We’ve provided staff to Managed Isolation and Quarantine Facilities (MIQFs) and this has been our biggest commitment to date, providing around 300 personnel to help staff these facilities.

We’re also providing staff support to Regional Isolation & Quarantine Coordination Centres in Auckland, Hamilton, Rotorua and Christchurch and to the central command and management centre in Wellington. Their duties include providing information to people in isolation, coordination between facility and other agency staff, and oversight and guidance on procedures at the MIQFs.

With the Government’s announcement on Tuesday that New Zealand was moving to alert level two, and Auckland to alert level three, we were asked to provide personnel to support the New Zealand Police’s vehicle checkpoints in the greater Auckland area. This support began on 12 August.

Our involvement in such activities is far from unusual, and is routinely trained for. For example our personnel helped the civil authorities staff cordons set up after the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake and the Nelson fires in 2019.

We remain ready to respond to any requests from Government as part of the COVID-19 response.