Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall says asymptomatic testing in the workplace is a key component of the Government's "endgame" to beating the current Delta outbreak in Auckland.
Verrall's comments on Breakfast on Wednesday come after Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield asked those working in permitted businesses at Level 3 be tested twice within the next fortnight even if they aren't showing symptoms.
It comes as Auckland enters a sixth week of lockdown - it's longest to date since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic - but Verrall said that's the response needed to address Delta.
"I think what we're seeing now with the really long tail is because it's more infectious," Verrall said of the current Auckland outbreak.
"It just means restrictions are less effective at extinguishing it quickly like we saw with the original virus last year."
As such, new tactics are being taken up to end the outbreak once and for all including asymptomatic testing in workplaces.
It means hundreds of thousands of tests will need to be processed over the next two weeks with an estimated 300,000 Aucklanders back at work at Level 3 but Verrall said it will be worth the grind.
"This is how we beat the outbreak - by making sure we identify early any unexpected positive tests outside of the contacts that we know about," she said.
"We appreciate the work that our swabbers will do over the next wee while but also all the essential and permitted workers who are going to participate in this.
"It's part of the endgame for making sure we stamp out this outbreak."
Latest projections have the Government feeling optimistic, Verrall added.
"Modelling tells us that the general trajectory is down though and it suggests that there aren't many undiagnosed cases which is, of course, the worry.
"But at this stage in the outbreak numbers bounce around so we just take it day by day."
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