“The Ministry of Health's annual report paints a grim picture of just how badly it has failed on contact tracing,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“These figures are shocking by anyone’s standard. If we had better testing and tracing we wouldn’t have had to be locked down for so long. New Zealanders have been failed.

“The Ministry had a target to trace 80 per cent from the time of exposure to isolation or quarantine – it achieved just 38 per cent.

“It had the same target from first symptom to contact isolation or quarantine – it achieved just 32 per cent.

“The Minister for COVID-19 had a responsibility to ensure the Ministry was performing. Chris Hipkins needs to explain why these figures are so dismal and why he didn’t push to ensure the Ministry was performing better.

“Kids have missed school, businesses have folded or lost huge amounts of revenue, people have been socially isolated and families have been separated, all because the Government failed us on testing and tracing.

“Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins owe us an explanation about how they failed us so badly.”

A copy of the figures are below:

© Scoop Media