Residents in Covid-free Niue are shortly expected to be given quarantine free access into New Zealand.
There have been complaints from locals, who are New Zealand citizens, of being denied medical exemptions and waiting for months for MIQ spots. Like Jenna Toeono, who has been trying to arrange treatment in New Zealand for her mother and sister’s serious medical conditions.
Toeono says exemption requests for specialist appointments and surgeries have all been denied which has been frustrating for the family.
“A lot of other people and families in Niue are also facing the same struggles as well, I almost think it's because we are small in number we don’t feature,” she said.
1 NEWS understands there are dozens of referral patients who need to come to Auckland for treatment and just last week a woman had to be medivaced out – she had reportedly been waiting months for a quarantine voucher.
Residents from the Cook Islands, also a realm country of New Zealand, have been able to travel here quarantine free since January and Niueans who hold the same status want the same treatment.
Toeono says the difference in treatment doesn’t make sense and she doesn’t understand why Niue has been put on the back burner.'
“We have been Covid-free since the beginning and I don’t understand the logic of it,” she said.
When questioned by 1 NEWS Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins promised things would change and there are plans to shortly give Niue the same quarantine free status as the Cook Islands.
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