Rapid-testing rules needed urgently

Clarke Gayford’s ‘‘don’t you know who I am’’ moment involving some friends trying to access a rapid Covid test couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Government.

It’s the sort of story that will lodge in people’s memories over the summer barbecue season.

With everyone on edge about when Omicron might reach New Zealand, access to at-home rapid antigen tests is seen as critical if we are to avoid Australia’s mistakes, where testing centres were quickly overwhelmed and the rollout of rapid antigen tests was criticised as too slow.

Rapid antigen tests are still not widely available here, so any perception of some people getting special treatment is going to rankle. MPs are already in that privileged club, apparently, which might explain Gayford’s confusion.

The story goes that some of Gayford’s friends, DJs who had been in close contact with a positive Covid case, put him on speakerphone to set a pharmacist straight after being told they had to get the usual PCR test, rather than the quicker and less invasive rapid antigen test.

There’s only one reason you might put your mate, the prime minister’s fiance, on speakerphone to challenge someone and we all know what that reason is. It’s the old story of friends in high places.

Gayford has not explained the phone call, though he has not denied it.

In fact he was wrong and the DJs were not eligible for the faster tests.

Leaving aside the politics of what Gayford did, the story only highlights the confusion around access to rapid antigen testing.

There is mounting frustration at the way the Government and Ministry of Health are dragging their feet on more widespread distribution, despite employers and experts calling for more urgency.

That frustration is exacerbated by the weight of evidence that it’s only a matter of time before we see Omicron sweep through New Zealand. News that an MIQ worker was among those infected yesterday hastens the air of inevitability.

Much of what the Government has done in the latest outbreak has been proven right; most notably, we have not fallen into the same trap as many other countries, such as rolling back mask mandates when the risk remained.

But while vaccination rates among the eligible population are high, the rollout for younger children only gets under way this week, and the booster rollout is yet to really gather steam. So we can’t be complacent.

Aside from people getting sick, there are also downstream effects. Empty supermarket shelves across the Tasman are chilling evidence of the impact on employment and supply chains disrupted not just by illness, but delays among others in accessing tests.

But even as recently as last week it was still not clear how households might access rapid antigen tests and what the rules might be.

There are only 3.5 million tests in the country at the moment, and another 20 million are on order and due for delivery over the next six months.

But with Omicron breathing down our necks, we need clarity on the rules before those ships come in, not after.

There is mounting frustration at the way the Government and Ministry of Health are dragging their feet.