The Ministry of Health has backtracked on a claim by the Director-General of Health that RAT kits requisitioned from private businesses were not already in New Zealand when the Ministry took them, Stuff reports.
It says last month, when news broke that the Ministry was requisitioning tests ordered by private companies for its own stocks, Dr Ashley Bloomfield said private and public orders of the tests were being “consolidated” into one order for the Government.
FGC’s Chief Executive Katherine Rich last week exposed the fact orders of many thousands of RAT kits by food and grocery companies had been “intercepted” by the Government to bolster its own stocks.
Stuff reports Dr Bloomfield twice said tests taken by the Ministry were “forward orders” from overseas, not tests already in New Zealand.
But Stuff says that was only partly correct. While tests from one of the manufacturers, Abbott, were not being requisitioned, tests from another manufacturer, Roche, “very much were”.
“A spokeswoman from the Ministry acknowledged it ‘did take the full February allocation from Roche and their stock on hand in New Zealand as part of having our orders fulfilled by Roche’.