New Zealand announces public inquiry into COVID-19 response

Dec. 5 (UPI) -- New Zealand will launch a public inquiry into its COVID-19 response, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Monday, as the Oceanic country hopes to glean lessons learned from its fight against the coronavirus to better prepare it to combat future pandemics.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry will begin Feb. 1 and conclude with a report presented to government no later than June 26, 2024, to help and inform its health response.

"I said from the outset that there would be an appropriate time to review our response, to learn from it, and with the emergency over and our primary focus on our strong economic recovery, that time is now," Ardern said during a post Cabinet press conference.

"We had no playbook by which to manage covid, but as a country we united in an extraordinary way and we did save lives and livelihoods. But ultimately the Royal Commission is an exercise in ensuring that we have the strongest possible playbook in the event of a future pandemic."

New Zealand and its roughly 5 million people have faired better than most of the developed world amid the COVID-19 pandemic as it early on issued a staunch nationwide lockdown that seemingly limited deaths and infections as the virus surged elsewhere.

As of Monday, the country has reported 1.9 million infections, including 2,235 deaths attributed to the virus, according to statistics from the ministry of health.

The commission was announced after New Zealand's Cabinet earlier Wednesday agreed to the inquiry's terms of reference that set out its wide-ranging scope, enveloping specific aspects of the country's health and economic response to the pandemic.

Legislative, regulatory and operational settings will be closely looked at for lessons to be learned though certain issues, such as individual decisions made by local public health authorities, fall outside of the commission's scope.

The Cabinet also signed off on it assessing whether New Zealand's initial strategy and later minimization and protection plans, as well as supporting economic measures, were effective in limiting the spread of the virus, according a summary of its terms of reference.

Prof. Tony Blakely, an Australian-based epidemiologist, has been tapped to lead the commission along aside two former Cabinet ministers Hekia Parata and John Whitehead.

Ardern explained that they were chosen as the three individuals are independent from the government and its response to the pandemic.

"A Royal Commission of Inquiry is the highest form of public inquiry, and it is the right thing to do given the covid emergency was the most significant threat to the health of New Zealanders and our economy since World War 2," she said.

There have already been 75 reviews of New Zealand's COVID-19 response since 2020, producing 1,639 recommendations, officials said.