A royal commission into New Zealand’s response to Covid found it was one of the best in the world but acknowledged the period had left “scars”.
The second of two research reports on the pandemic was published on Tuesday and focused on the period from February 2021 to October 2022, when the government moved from an elimination strategy to one of suppression and minimization of the virus. It also examined the safety of vaccines and the government’s immunization programme, lockdowns and testing and tracing technology.
The royal commission was established in 2022 by Jacinda Ardern’s Labor-led government, which was in power during the pandemic.
New Zealand has recorded 5,641 Covid deaths since 2020. The country’s strict response, which included lockdowns, vaccination mandates and border quarantine, helped save tens of thousands of lives. But as the pandemic progressed, some anger arose over the restrictions imposed and a small but vocal group of anti-vaccine and anti-mandate groups emerged, leading to a violent protest on the grounds of Parliament.
The first phase of the research, published in late 2024, found that New Zealand had one of the lowest rates of Covid deaths per capita among developed countries. He largely accepted the need to impose vaccine mandates, although he acknowledged they had caused distress and economic harm to some New Zealanders.
In the report published on Tuesday, the commission concluded that New Zealand responded well to the pandemic and that the decisions and methods used in the response were “considered and appropriate”, but also identified where the response was “lacking”.
“New Zealand’s response strategy and environments did not always respond sufficiently to changing circumstances – for example, they did not adapt early enough to deal with later variants of the virus,” he said.
“At a time when speed was often critical, some decisions had to be made without sufficient information and data, or without sufficient consideration of all the impacts that could arise, or without important controls and monitoring.”
The commission said it heard from many people who expressed grief and anger about the impacts of the pandemic and the response, and that there were lessons to be learned from their experiences.
“The pandemic and the response to it have left scars,” he said.
“During the period examined in this phase, people continued to die and others suffered long-term health impacts. Some lost all faith in the government and other institutions, and today remain disengaged, skeptical or even hostile towards them.”
He said ministers and officials were facing a complex, high-risk situation and were “doing the best they could”, adding that evidence showed New Zealand had “one of the best responses to the pandemic in the world”.
But he noted that while restrictions such as the obligation to vaccinate were a valid tool for a pandemic response, they had to be “treated very carefully.”
Before listing 24 recommendations, the report noted its aim was not to “apportion blame but to ensure New Zealand is better informed ahead of the next pandemic”.
The commission concluded that exiting the elimination strategy was difficult, and the lack of a timely update to the strategy meant the response appeared to many “too centralized and risk-averse”. He suggested leaders should present elimination strategies as “temporary from the beginning” to help manage public expectations.
On the issue of vaccine hesitancy, the commission said the concerns raised were “neither based on reliable evidence nor aligned with a scientific consensus.” He suggested that governments should continue to be guided by the best scientific evidence and that an agency should be tasked with monitoring trust and social cohesion.
He Health Minister Simeon Brown said while New Zealanders supported the initial 2020 Covid response, restrictions continued longer than necessary and not enough weight was given to the economic costs.
“New Zealanders made enormous sacrifices and placed enormous trust in their government. We owe it to them to understand what happened and learn from it.”
In a joint statement, Ardern and former deputy prime minister Grant Robertson said they accepted the commission’s findings and recommendations, RNZ reported.
“We got a lot of things right. More than most. But there are areas that could have been better,” they said.
Labor leader Chris Hipkins said the country now needs to strengthen its institutions, public trust and processes to deal with a future pandemic.
“Over the past two years, the government has cut public health capacity while commissioning multiple reviews that repeat the same conclusions,” Hipkins said.
“National now needs to answer a simple question: Are we better prepared for the next pandemic today than we were in 2020?”
