“With 55 new cases and the inevitable extension of Northland and Waikato lockdowns, Jacinda Ardern needs to admit the Government has made mistakes and reset the response," says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Like the short sharp beginnings of the nationwide lockdown announced on August 17, four days for Northland was always delusional. It takes five days for a case to become testable, and apparently another five for some of the tests to come back.

“The increases in case numbers and, crucially, mystery cases means that the Government’s strategy is not working. It is on course for rapidly increasing cases, and COVID for Christmas.

“As the Government rolls out its three stages, cases will grow, hospitalisation will rise, but freedom and certainty will be as far away as ever. It is delivering the worst of all worlds.

“When a strategy isn’t working, the only way forward is to change tack. Ardern’s problem is she’s never admitted fault. Her modus operandi is that nobody’s every responsible, and the last person she’ll hold responsible is herself.

“Ardern has an almost religious faith in deliverance that does not fit the facts. We are not being delivered, the Government is not delivering, we are in growing trouble with no clear way out. The Prime Minister needs to say, ‘we’ve got it wrong, here’s how we fix it,’ the problem is she doesn’t know what to do.

“What the Government should do is give certainty with a deadline for vaccinations, after which restrictions will be lifted. Any suburb that reached 90 per cent vaccination before that time should be relieved of Alert Levels 3 or 4 immediately.

“The Government should then get relevant people around the table in each sector and host all-in ‘sprints’ to help reduce transmission, hospitalisation and death in all activities. That would be an honest response that New Zealanders deserve. The only question is how many more days will Ardern keep spinning?"

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