The government has moved-in another 500 personnel of the defence forces to coordinate what is being described as "multi-agency tasks" required to speed up the testing at the managed quarantine facilities.
The decision was announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in today's public health briefing at 1 pm.
Revealing more details about the nature of the new deployment a press release from, the office of Minister of Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ), Megan Woods further said, "It is important we do all we can to strengthen the layers of security systems in our facilities.
“This boost in defence force personnel will be progressively rolled out over the next six weeks and will see the number in each managed isolation and quarantine facility increase from around 4 people to 19 people, and also see around 80 extra personnel stationed at the maritime border to assist Customs," Dr Woods said.
Currently, there are 32 managed isolation and quarantine facilities.
Notably, recently the government has come under increased pressure for its alleged shambolic management of quarantine facilities at the border and being inconclusively linked to the re-emergence of the second wave of the Covid-19 in the country.
Minister of Health Chris Hipkins had earlier accepted a damning media report revealing that almost 60 per cent of frontline border staffs have not been tested, despite the government's earlier expectations for rigorous testing of everyone involved in border management.
Since then the government has taken a number of steps to bolster border management, including rigorous testing.
Minister Woods has however strongly rejected the allegation that the second wave of Covid-19 in the country can be linked with shambolic border management.
"While the current community cluster has not been sourced to a managed isolation and quarantine facility, nothing is fail-safe and strengthening security is a step we believe is useful,” Megan Woods said.
Thirty staff will deploy to Auckland this Thursday to staff the first two MIQ facilities.
Currently, there are around 1200 Defence Force personnel supporting the Covid-19 response, with 990 at Managed Isolation Facilities and 70 in Police traffic management services.