National Party leader Christopher Luxon says the Government’s announcement around Omicron on Thursday “feels like it’s been made up on the fly and on the go”.
"The Labour Government doesn’t have a plan, they're not prepared for it."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the country would move to the Red stage of the traffic light system in 24-48 hours if there was an Omicron outbreak, while urging people to plan and get their booster shot as soon as possible.
More details around how Omicron would be handled was being finalised, she said, including managing cases, the definition of a close contact and testing rules. Ardern said the Government was preparing a graduated system for case management for different stages of the pandemic.
ACT's David Seymour said the Government was "now making a plan about a plan".
"In what was a perfect metaphor, when New Zealanders tuned into the live stream to hear Jacinda’s plan to face Omicron but all they heard was crickets," he said in reference to the loud cicadas.
"What it should have done is explained what the isolation rules will be for a vaccinated, otherwise healthy person who tests positive for Omicron," he said.
"There is no plan for the border. There is no plan for targeted boosters," he said.
Luxon said the criteria and logic in which the country would move between traffic light stages was "really hard to understand".
"We've gone from alert levels, to steps, to traffic light system, now we're talking about adjusted traffic light systems.
"I'm struggling to understand the criteria by which we go to Red, Orange and Green.
"New Zealand has been slow on boosters and slow on vaccines for 5–11 year olds and now we’re being appallingly slow on rapid tests," he said.
"Why can't I buy a rapid antigen test in a supermarket or lots of different places?"
"New Zealand deserves better."
He said the Government needed to find a way to roll out the home isolation model for returnees, describing the decision to put new room releases on hold as "pretty heartless".
Earlier on Thursday, Ardern said there would be a focus on "safely reopening with the world" this year, while on Wednesday Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said New Zealand would move to a self-isolation model but there was a question mark over when that will begin.
They both said the end-of-February time-frame for the start of the border-reopening had not changed.
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