More than 15,000 businesses have registered themselves as "critical", allowing hundreds of thousands of workers to access rapid antigen tests (RATs) and gain exemption from close contact isolation rules.
According to data provided by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, as of 11:30am on Thursday, 15,284 businesses had registered to access the Government's close contact exemption scheme, covering 704,268 employees.
Businesses could begin registering themselves for the scheme on Monday. It kicked in when New Zealand moved to the second phase of the Omicron plan on Tuesday night.
The scheme has been introduced in an attempt to avoid severe disruptions to businesses and critical supply chains as the Omicron outbreak worsens and more people become COVID-19 contacts and are required to isolate.
It allows "critical" workers who become COVID-19 contacts to return to work if they have daily negative tests. Contacts would normally have to isolate for seven days. Workers can use RATs provided by their employer or obtain them from collection sites.
Businesses self-assess to determine if they meet the criteria as a critical service.
A MBIE spokesperson told Newshub there is no approval process for the scheme.
"The register will be checked, however, to monitor overall compliance. Businesses who have incorrectly registered may be removed by the Director General of Health."
Critical services listed by the Government include food production and its supply chain, key public services like health and emergency services, lifeline utilities such as power and water supplies, transport, critical financial services, news media, social welfare, and human and animal welfare.
"While the new scheme will help businesses continue to operate, rapid antigen testing is about 80 percent accurate," associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall said this week. "This may mean they have someone onsite who has COVID-19 and could infect other workers, which could further compromise business operations."
Any worker participating in the scheme must be vaccinated and if they return a positive test, will have to undertake a PCR test and then isolate.
COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said on Wednesday that the Government has secured enough RATs to operate the critical worker exemption scheme. By the end of the month, Hipkins said we will have tens of millions of RATs, with another 50 million expected in March.
For businesses which are not classified as critical, such as many in hospitality, employers have to source their own RATs.
"I know that people want to have access to rapid antigen tests," Hipkins said. "Businesses want to use them for things like surveillance so that they can just do regular testing of their staff.
"Government won't be supplying those. If they can source those, then they can certainly do that, but we won't be sourcing those tests for them."
Businesses have been reporting a drop in sales and customers in recent weeks since the country recorded a handful of Omicron community cases and the country moved to the red light settings. Research commissioned by business management platform MYOB released on Friday showed 32 percent of SMEs were already seeing fewer sales, 27 percent said their customer numbers were down and 22 percent said there was pressure on cash flow.
Economist Cameron Bagrie said on Tuesday that he expects an "economic hit" in coming weeks due to "massive labour disruption" and reduced business cash flow. Finance Minister Grant Robertson has suggested the Government is looking at how to provide "targeted support" to the food and beverage sector.
