GPs and pharmacists are bracing for huge demand for rapid antigen tests (RATs) as the country prepares to go into phase three.
The government has announced a move to phase three at 11.59pm on Thursday, with more than 6000 cases recorded today.
Auckland's 17 community testing centres are now offering most people RATs rather than a PCR tests, and 14,000 were given out yesterday alone.
From tomorrow in phase three, they will become the primary way of testing.
Pharmacies will soon be able to provide RATs, but Unichem Pakuranga owner Vicky Chan was worried about having enough in time.
"The waiting list for people who have registered their interest to purchase is really long. I don't know whether the supply could fill our orders or anything like that so we're just waiting. We'll believe it when we see it."
Chan said they had been inundated with businesses wanting hundreds of RATs already.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said most people who get Covid-19 would be treated by their GPs.
But they say now that pressure is on them with very little notice or time to prepare.
"We don't have systems in place or the actual RAT tests in our buildings to be able to deliver them at the volume that might be needed, and the overnight change in what we need to be doing now is impossible to do," said Samantha Murton, president of Royal New Zealand College of GPs.
GPs should have been more involved in the process of dispersing RATs to clinics and given a heads up, Murton said.
"The system behind getting RAT swabs to every practice needs to be given a bit of time to get embedded and the problem we have is that it's across the country, it's not just 'oh we'll deliver something to that one place and we'll be fine'. Because it's so widespread, it has to go all over the place, so logistically, it's actually very difficult."
She was asking people to be patient as they navigate the new process.
"Waiting is part of it, being kind about not getting what you expect is a good thing. We'll try and do our best that we possibly can for patients but sometimes we're hampered as much as they feel that they're hampered as well."
Under the new phase, only confirmed cases and their household contacts will be required to isolate.
All other contacts will be asked to monitor for symptoms but do not need to isolate.
That was welcome news to Employers and Manufacturers Association chief executive Brett O'Riley.
"The changes are positive, we know that many businesses at the moment are not able to open because of staff who are deemed to be contacts, but not close contacts, not being able to work.
"So anything that can clarify that and ensure that people are not unnecessarily having to stay home is a really good thing for businesses."
Up until now businesses have not been able to purchase RATs, with some workers waiting up to five days for a PCR result.
From next month, they will be able to buy them, and O'Riley said that would make things much more efficient.
But businesses should only purchase what they need.
"For example, businesses where they have their staff predominantly outside may be very different to a factory where businesses are working internally," O'Riley said.
"But I think everyone just needs to make sure they carefully manage them until they can be certain new stock is going to arrive, because New Zealand was so late in ordering them ... and there is no reason to stockpile."
He was hopeful phase three would get businesses through the next month, but says RATs should have been rolled out earlier.
"That's the shame of the delay because if it was more ingrained in our system, we'd know how best to utilise them in the workplace.
"We're just going to have to patiently work through that process, unfortunately, in the middle of Omicron rather than having had the opportunity to do that beforehand."
The government said there were 6.3 million unused RATs in the country yesterday, another million arrived last night and another 10 million are expected to arrive in the coming week.
