Hi,
I believe that the NEW queue is being processed. See:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2005/03/msg00157.html
Unfortunately I can't tell which packages had to go through the NEW
queue.
At any rate, it's the decision of the Maintainers as to whether they want
to try to get through the NEW queue, and it's the decision of the ftp
masters as to how the processing gets done. The release team does not
control either.
Drew Daniels