The Government is considering mandatory QR scanning in “high-risk locations such as bars and restaurants”, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at a briefing this afternoon.
Cabinet has commissioned advice on the move after daily scans fell from a high of two million every day at the height of the pandemic in New Zealand to a low of just over 400,000.
Over time, requiring people to scan would become part of everyday life, much like showing ID in a bar, Ardern said at today’s post-Cabinet press briefing.
The Prime Minister said the Government was also considering mandating mask-wearing at alert levels 2 and above at certain high-risk locations.
In principle and based on member feedback, we support the idea of mandatory scanning in hospitality establishments. However, asking our businesses to enforce scanning is another issue that needs clarity. It would create an extra layer of compliance and potentially cost for our businesses, which in many cases would be untenable. So more thought about how this would be monitored needs to be considered to not fall solely on the shoulders of our operators and their teams.
Back in October 2020, we proposed to Government mandatory mask wearing for all hospitality workers at alert levels 2, 3 and 4, based on our member feedback. We also included a recommendation for a policy for mandatory covid testing of hospitality workers. The aim of this was to reduce the need for the single server rule and also to limit the time that workers would need to spend self-isolating if a positive case was found in their establishment.
More recently we made these recommendations to Sir Brian Roche and Rob Fyfe during hui seeking improvements for the way COVID response was rolling out for hospitality.