Internal Ministry of Health emails reveal how panicked the Government was in January when it became clear that they hadn’t ordered enough rapid antigen tests early enough, says National’s Covid-19 Response Spokesperson Chris Bishop.

“The Government’s response to Omicron mirrored their response to Delta – too slow and too late. By the end of 2021, they had only ordered 13.2 million tests – barely enough for two per person.

“On 14 January, the same day experts said that 1 million rapid tests per week may be required, a Health official emailed a representative of test manufacturer Abbott, to say ‘we now have the Minister’s office and DPMC enquiring daily about status of our RAT orders’ and ‘the highest level of NZ Government is now asking for firm delivery schedules’.

“Abbott confirmed deliveries for less than 2 per cent of the government orders for January and February. This sent the Government into panic mode, with emails confirming they did in fact move to ensure that all rapid tests coming into the country went through the government first.

“A Health official even wrote out a draft piece of communications material for Abbott to issue to their customers advising that the New Zealand Government was directing them to distribute tests imported into New Zealand exclusively to the Ministry instead of private companies.

“These emails confirm what we all knew – that despite their constant denials, the Government had resorted to confiscating tests ordered by private companies who had more foresight than they did to order the tests early.

“Labour dropped the ball on rapid tests from the start. They banned the tests for most of 2021. Then after belatedly allowing some companies to import them in November 2021, confiscated tests imported by those companies to cover up their failure to order enough, early enough.

“New Zealand had last mover advantage and should have been ten steps ahead of Omicron. Instead, because of this Government’s incompetence, we’ve been ten steps behind.”