Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: Christopher Luxon wants to give rapid tests to schools, cut isolation periods

Political Editor·NZ Herald·

31 Jan, 2022 09:26 PM4 mins to read

January 31 2022 National Party leader Chris Luxon said centre-right parties worldwide faced a perception problem, as too many voters thought such parties were not compassionate.

NOW PLAYING • Focus Live: Chris Luxon's message to MPs at National caucus retreat

Focus Live: Chris Luxon's message to MPs at National caucus retreat

National leader Christopher Luxon wants to get free rapid antigen tests in schools to help students and teachers stay safe - and for schools to stay open.

Speaking to the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce, Luxon said he wanted to "provide every school with sufficient rapid tests to conduct twice-weekly surveillance testing for all students, teachers and staff".

Luxon said the policy was based on similar schemes in New South Wales and Victoria.

However, when asked he confessed he did not know the size of the national school roll, which stands at just over 800,000 students, meaning National would need to get 1.6 million tests per week if it was to test each student twice weekly.

It would need a further 140,000 tests to test each of New Zealand's roughly 70,000 teachers twice weekly.

"There's 2500 schools in this country, the precise number of students I don't know," Luxon said.

He added that New Zealand should be able to get the number of tests required to test those 800,000 students.

"That should be a focus, why can't we do that. If New South Wales and Victoria can do it, why can't we do it," Luxon said.

He also said the Government needed to change isolation periods to seven days for identified cases and close contacts.

"This will ensure we continue to slow the spread of Omicron while still allowing communities to keep functioning," Luxon said.

"Thousands of Kiwis will get Omicron - to keep our communities safe we need to make sure people actually go out and get tested, and this will happen less when isolation can be for up to 24 days under the Government's current plan," Luxon said.

National leader Christopher Luxon in Queenstown today. Photo / George Heard

Under the Government's three-phase Omicron plan, the period of isolation depends on the level of Omicron in the community. Currently, cases must isolate for 14 days, and contacts must isolate for 10.

In phase two, that drops to 10 days for cases, and seven for contacts.

Luxon reiterated existing policies, including eventually ending MIQ by opening the border, first to Kiwis, and then to vaccinated travellers who had tested negative.

Asked afterwards how the country and health system would cope with community cases isolating at home as well as incoming travellers isolating at home without MIQ, he said a seven-day isolation period was pragmatic.

"We have resources that can be re-deployed from an MIQ environment to supporting those isolating at home. The world is moving on. We are not being reckless about this, we are being more intelligent."

On the policy to scrap MIQ in favour of home isolation for vaccinated New Zealanders, Luxon said: "Charlotte Bellis' case is inexcusable, but she is representative of thousands of Kiwis who are in the same situation. The bigger question should be what have we done this week to take away the misery of MIQ."

Asked why he would focus on schools rather than higher-risk groups for rapid antigen tests, he said other countries – including several Australian states - had managed to secure more supply of RATs and roll them out through schools, and it beggared belief that the Government was so far behind.

"If NSW and Victoria can do rapid antigen tests for students and staff, why can't we do that? Why in New Zealand do we accept that 'oh, we just didn't get the rapid antigen tests in time, we just didn't get the vaccines in time'."