New Zealand has opened a broad investigation into whether it made the right decisions in the fight against COVID-19 and how it can best prepare for future pandemics.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that the coronavirus posed the biggest threat to the country’s health and economy since World War II. Now is the right time to examine the government’s response with an independent investigation at the highest level, she said.
One of the issues under discussion will be whether New Zealand took the right initial strategy by imposing strict lockdowns and border quarantine controls to try to completely eliminate the virus in the country.
Initially, the zero tolerance strategy was recognized internationally as a success because New Zealand’s death rate remained well below that of most other countries, and people were able to carry on with their normal lives.
But over time, the drawbacks of that approach became clearer as the economic and social costs mounted. Some citizens experienced long delays in returning home due to overloaded quarantine centers.
The government later abandoned that strategy in October 2021, when new and more contagious variants proved impossible to contain and people had the opportunity to get vaccinated.
China is one of the few countries that maintains a zero tolerance policy. Experts say the strategy is unsustainable in the long term and that China has no exit plan.
The New Zealand Royal Commission of Inquiry will be led by Tony Blakely, an Australian -based epidemiologist and professor . Starting early next year, he will have 17 months to investigate and prepare a comprehensive report.
Ardern noted that it’s crucial to determine what worked in your response to help the country in the face of future pandemics.
“We did not have a manual to manage COVID , but as a country, we came together in an extraordinary way and saved lives and livelihoods,” he said.
COVID-19 Response Minister Ayesha Verrall said one reason was that having a prescriptive pandemic plan, like the flu-based plan the country had before the outbreak of the new disease, was not helpful. great help.
“I imagine the lesson has been learned that just looking at the characteristics of a microbe is not going to suffice,” Verrall said. “You have to have a much broader vision.”