“New Zealanders will pay the price for the Government losing control of the Auckland Covid-19 cluster,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“With eight new cases today, contact tracing has failed to find the perimeter in time, despite Aucklanders dutifully shutting down their businesses, yet again. The Contact Tracing App has been particularly useless, in spite of recording a million scans a day.

“With those numbers, I doubt the Government’s tracing app has assisting in tracing a single contact in the current outbreak.

“We must accept the technology has failed and take the Taiwanese approach of tracing cards. If tracing cards had been used and saved Auckland from two extra days of lockdown then they would have paid for themselves by now.

“If the Government spent less time trumpeting itself in political ads, rather than dealing with the outbreaks we might not be in this position.

“Only a party vote for ACT is a vote to use intelligent technology. Our policy is:

• New Zealand Epidemic Response Unit: Based on Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Centre
  • Government as referee, not player: Allow alternative facilities for safe, electronically-monitored isolation, with strict punishment for rule-breakers
  • Risk-weighted: Treat different countries and travellers with different levels of caution
  • Technology-driven: Such as COVID card, ëlarm, rapid tests, temperature checks and thermal cameras
  • Continuous improvement: Constantly compare ourselves with the best and seek to strengthen our resistance.

“If we want to enhance New Zealanders’ overall wellbeing, we must get a lot smarter. A Party Vote for ACT is a vote to tackle Covid-19 intelligently.”

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