Despite case number growing more slowly, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it is still too early to tell if New Zealand's measures have been effective.

OPINION: Every day we stay home and do our bit. Every day the Government releases a new set of numbers.

More cases of coronavirus. More people in hospital, more people who have recovered. And more tests being run.

But there's something a bit off about the numbers. We're told sitting at home will help break community transmission of the virus — yet there's little such transmission being found.

"Test, test, test," said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Tuesday. "We have the capacity," we've heard ad nauseam from her lieutenants.

DAVID UNWIN/STUFF A healthcare worker testing for Covid-19 at a Palmerston North testing station. (file photo)

READ MORE:

* Coronavirus: Full coverage

* Coronavirus: Jacinda Ardern wants to ramp up Covid-19 testing

* Coronavirus: Number of new cases dips to 58, bringing total to 647

* World Health Organisation warns lockdowns not enough

And here we have the missing link in New Zealand's coronavirus response. A four-week lockdown might help break community transmission but, as both experts and health officials have made clear, we can't end this forced isolation without knowing we've ended the virus' spread.

Yet a week into the lockdown we don't appear to be eyes-wide-open. A mere 1 per cent of 708 Covid-19 cases are deemed the result of community transmission.

The Ministry of Health has stopped providing the number of tests run each day, though Ardern has acknowledged it has dropped off in recent days. Instead we're provided a seven-day average, currently at 1843 tests, with no reasonable explanation for the change.

And New Zealand's full daily testing capacity, now at 3700 a day, has not once been exhausted. The countries which have grasped and suppressed the virus have tested like there's no tomorrow.

Ardern, at her Wednesday press conference, reiterated the failure to reach the quota when pressed on testing. And she placed the blame squarely at the feet of the clinicians tasked with swabbing patients.

"You will have heard me constantly and consistently saying that clinicians needed to use their discretion, and that always existed, regardless of international travel, regardless of contact with anyone else who had Covid, they've always had the discretion to test if they believe they needed to," she said.

But clinicians are not closing their ears to Ardern's message; many have queried the testing criteria and many have requests to test denied in recent weeks

Though "clinical concern" was offered to doctors and nurses as a testing criteria some two weeks ago, a Wellington GP told Stuff the term was vague and unhelpful.

MONIQUE FORD/STUFF Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has affectively placed the blame for the daily testing capacity not being reached on clinicians. (file photo)

Many people with coronavirus don't have severe symptoms, making it hard to justify the concern. And if a clinician was concerned about community transmission — as we now are — they would be swabbing every sore throat.

And despite the claims of ample capacity, the Wellington doctor was not alone in saying the local laboratory had withheld swabs for concerns about supply.

Ardern said this was a distribution problem. The same explanation was given after healthcare workers complained they were short on personal protective gear — and the Ministry of Health has promised to remedy this through nationalising distribution.

Maybe the same needs to happen for testing swabs, as suggested by Royal College of GPs president Dr Samantha Murton.

There is no doubt a balance. Not every cough can be tested, not every healthcare worker needs to wear full protective equipment.

But above all what's needed is for those leading the response to be open and transparent. The tests aren't being run, the problem needs to be fixed, and it needed to happen two weeks ago.