National Party Leader Christopher Luxon has called out the Government, saying they do not have enough rapid antigen tests (RATs) for phase two of the Omicron response.
"This is the key tool that you actually need in this phase of the fight and we haven't got enough of them available," Luxon told AM.
Luxon said the Government has just over 7 million RATs, but we will need tens of millions.
"We actually just want all workers to be able to have them, as they do in every other country around the world."
In the UK, RATs are available for free in local supermarkets and pharmacies, while in Japan the public can get them from vending machines.
COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said they expect to have "tens of millions" of rapid antigen tests in the country by the end of February, and there's another 50 million on the way in March.
"There's a difference between either 'we have got them here and we are ready to go' or 'we are talking about the fact that they are coming and we are going to be ready someday in the future' - and that's not quite good enough," Luxon said.
He says if New Zealand approved more RAT manufacturers we could access a lot more supply quickly. There are 11 different types of RATs approved for use in New Zealand, according to the Ministry of Health, but Luxon points out Australia already has 60 types.
The National leader says they want everyone to be considered critical workers and be provided with RATs so they can get back to work quicker.
He says this is needed or else there will be massive disruptions in the economy and businesses will suffer.
"We want to be able to test to work."
Hipkins told AM on Wednesday the Government will not be sourcing RATs for business, only for critical workers.
"The Government will not be providing those if they can source those. They can certainly do that, but we won't be sourcing those tests for them."
Luxon says there is "immense frustration" in New Zealand at the moment.
"The vast majority of people have actually gone off and done the right thing, they've gone off and got triple-vaccinated, but they are incredibly frustrated that they don't have good clarity about where we are going."
Luxon says as Omicron becomes endemic, the relevance of mandates "diminishes". He says there needs to be a clear criteria that will determine the end of mandates, but wouldn't provide a set date himself.
