Newshub can reveal some managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) rooms may be sitting empty when the length of stays are halved because they don't have enough workers.
It comes as the Government considers abandoning cohorting to free up more rooms - but the National Party wants MIQ abandoned altogether.
After six attempts to get a room in the MIQ lottery, Benita Steenkamp is exhausted. She moved to Sydney from Christchurch to escape the earthquakes. Now, she's desperate to see her children and meet her new grandkids.
"It's hard, it's just so hard. You won't believe the stress that it puts you under," Steenkamp told Newshub. "I thought the earthquakes were hard, but this is way, way, way worse on my mental health."
Last week the Government promised more MIQ spots for people like Benita by halving MIQ stays to seven days.
"This evolution will free up around 1500 rooms a month in MIQ," COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said at the time.
But many were left wondering why halving stays didn't mean twice the number of rooms, which would be an extra 4500 a month.
Newshub can reveal it's because they don't have enough staff.
The ministry said: "The health workforce are under sustained pressure in Auckland... The change to a seven day MIQ stay creates additional pressure because we will shift from four tests in 14 days to four tests in seven."
Steenkamp says it's "mind blowing".
"It's like, what's going on? Why are there not more spaces available to us?"
The Government is trying to free up even more rooms by beginning to relax cohorting rules. Cohorting means people from the same flight are put in the same hotel, to manage transmission risk. Last month it meant just one person stayed in a Wellington facility for a whole week.
"There may sometimes be a higher risk flight, for example, that we wanted to keep separate from others but we want to make the best use of the rooms that we've got and so I think you'll see less cohorting," Hipkins said.
While the Government mostly abandons cohorting, the National Party wants MIQ abandoned altogether for double vaccinated Kiwis.
"It is illogical and unfair and inequitable and it is time to put a stop to it," National's COVID-19 spokesperson Chris Bishop said on Thursday.
