Managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) was a quarantine system implemented by the New Zealand Government during the country's COVID-19 pandemic. Under the system, people entering New Zealand, COVID-19 positive cases and some of their close contacts were required to isolate at an MIQ facility for 14 days. Compulsory managed isolation and quarantine was announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the 1pm press conference on 9 April 2020, with the system coming into effect for people boarding flights to New Zealand from midnight that day. The government has contracted dozens of hotels in five cities that were exclusively used as managed isolation facilities. The task was organised by the Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) unit, part of the COVID-19 All-of-Government Response Group. On 10 March 2022, the New Zealand Government announced plans to phase out the MIQ system as part of plans to reopen the country's borders. Most of the MIQ facilities would revert to being hotels. However, four facilities would be retained for those needing to quarantine. By March 2022, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins estimated that the MIQ system had accommodated 230,000 people returning to New Zealand and 4,400 people who had contracted COVID-19 in the community. Background On 28 February 2020, New Zealand confirmed its first case of COVID-19. At the daily 1 pm press conference on 14 March, Ardern announced that people entering New Zealand must go into a fortnight's self-isolation beginning on 16 March; people coming from Pacific Island nations were initially exempt from these restrictions. By mid-March, the government was urging New Zealanders to return home urgently. History 2020 At the daily 1 pm press conference on 9 April 2020, Ardern announced that those boarding flights after midnight that day would have to go into managed isolation provided by the government. She explained that government had been considering this measure for some time, but there simply was not the capacity to introduce these measures any earlier as almost 40,000 New Zealanders had returned since 20 March, a number larger than all the country's hotel rooms. Part of the announcement was that the government would use up to 18 hotels, but this was soon increased to 26 by early July and 32 by early August. Three representatives of the Defence Force, Corrections, and Police undertook a review of the managed isolation system at the end of June. They found that little pre-planning had been done,