[Ab]

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.

Bloomfield twice assured the public that tests taken by the Ministry were "forward orders" from overseas, not tests already in New Zealand.

"Many businesses already have tests onshore and we're not requisitioning those or doing anything like that," Bloomfield said.

The Ministry of Health has backtracked on a claim by director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield that tests requisitioned from private businesses were not already in New Zealand when the Ministry took them.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-...AAZDVPYIEEWDY/