Given the Government has listened to National’s policy to end MIQ for vaccinated travellers and recognised the importance of rapid tests, National is proposing more ideas to improve the response to Omicron, says National’s COVID-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop.
“Today, National is releasing our 10-point plan for the Government to safely steer the country through Omicron.
“We need to speed up the vaccine rollout for 5-11-year-olds with pop-up vaccination clinics in schools (with strict parental consent provisions in place) and consider a shorter gap between first and second doses for children, as other countries have done.
“National supports making the Novavax vaccine available to everyone who wants it, once it is approved by Medsafe. There is a small group waiting for Novavax, and if making it available gets a few more people vaccinated, then it is worth it.
“Now the Government has finally recognised the role of rapid tests, it needs to approve every test already approved in Australia and lift the pointless ban on buying them from pharmacies and supermarkets, so that people can take some personal responsibility and also do the right thing for the community.
“We should also provide every school with sufficient rapid antigen tests to conduct twice-weekly surveillance testing for all students, teachers and staff. If NSW and Victoria can do it, so can we.
“Finally, the Government needs to start charting a pathway back to something closer to normal life. Kiwis have sacrificed a lot over the last two years, have complied with each new public health restriction and each new impingement on the freedoms and rights that, in normal times, would have been considered unconscionable.
“The Government response to Delta and Omicron has been marked by on-the-fly decision-making and a real lack of planning. We need to put serious effort into getting ahead of COVID and outlining what the plan is over the next year.
“New Zealanders deserve to know what the triggers will be – in terms of case numbers, booster coverage, or falling hospitalisation rates – for things like the move from Red to Orange to Green under the traffic light system, the eventual removal of gathering limits and restrictions on hospitality, when the vaccine pass system will no longer be required, and at what point vaccine mandates will be allowed to expire.”