The Guardian Royal commission says response led by Jacinda Ardern was broadly ‘appropriate’, in a wide-ranging report featuring recommendations for future pandemics. A royal commission into New Zealand’s Covid response has found it was one of the best in the world but acknowledged the period had left “scars”.
The second of two inquiry reports on the pandemic was released on Tuesday and focused on the period between February 2021 to October 2022, when the government changed from an elimination strategy to one of suppression and minimisation of the virus. It also examined vaccine safety and the government’s immunisation programme, lockdowns and tracing and testing technology.
The royal commission was established in 2022 by Jacinda Ardern’s Labour-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, vaccine mandates and border quarantine helped to save tens of thousands of lives. But as the pandemic wore on, some anger over the restrictions set in and a small but vocal fringe of anti-vaccine and anti-mandate groups emerged, leading to a violent protest on parliament’s lawns.