Calls are growing for the Government to lift the COVID-19 vaccine mandate on health care workers.
It's predicted between 500 and 700 nurses and health care workers could return to the frontline if mandates were scrapped.
On Tuesday, there were 11,548 new community cases of COVID-19 with another 19 people dying with the virus. There were also 710 people in hospital compared with 689 people on Monday, including 17 in intensive care, the Ministry of Health said in its daily update.
But National Party leader Christopher Luxon on Tuesday said he wanted a "conversation" about ending health worker vaccine mandates.
He repeated those comments on Wednesday, telling AM the National Party supported vaccine mandates initially but "the risk has changed".
Instead of mandates, Luxon suggested workers could take rapid COVID-19 tests before they start a shift.
But leading epidemiologist Michael Baker told AM it was "absolutely critical" that health employees were vaccinated for patients and their own safety.
"This is a group - doctors and nurses - who obviously are vital but they have had very high mortality, globally, from the pandemic," Prof Baker said. "They're highly exposed to patients - we know that vaccination greatly reduces your risk of severe illness and death so, no, I don't think we should get rid of mandates."
Prof Baker noted it was only a small majority of health care workers who weren't vaccinated against COVID-19.
Asked whether he knew how much more likely an unvaccinated person was to pass on COVID-19 as opposed to a vaccinated person, Prof Baker said that had changed since the virus had evolved.
"We obviously need to get new boosters in that are more focussed on Omicron," he told AM host Ryan Bridge. "What we do know is that, actually, your risk of serious illness and death is reduced by at least an order of magnitude if you're fully vaccinated and boosted."
Several groups of healthcare workers were still required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, including those who provided services in person. However, as of last week, workers in non-public facing health roles don't need to have the jab.
Speaking to AM earlier, Health Minister Andrew Little said the mandates were in place for the safety of both staff and patients. He noted COVID-19 Response Minister Ayesha Verrall regularly reviewed those settings.
