A long-awaited report from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into New Zealand’s Covid-19 pandemic response is being delivered to the Government today.
While it’s still unclear when the report will be made available to the public, the chairman of Phase One of the inquiry, Professor Tony Blakely, has spoken about some of its broader themes and findings.
First, some numbers
The first phase of the Royal Commission has been two years of work across 400 meetings held with 1600 people.
Professor Tony Blakely, chairman of Phase One of the Royal Commission of Inquiry, spoke to Breakfast about what it has looked at. (Source: Breakfast)
Approximately 13,000 public submissions were also made, while 133,000 pages of local and international evidence were collated.
READ MORE: The role and powers of a Royal Commission explained
The end result? A 600-page report that is being handed over to Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden at 2pm today.
That is according to the leader of the World Health Organization’s Covid response, Sam Olley reports. (Source: 1News)
Looking back at the pandemic response
Phase One of the Royal Commission covered a broad range of issues, Blakely said.
Those topics included vaccine procurement, lockdowns (including regional lockdowns like the lengthy one Auckland endured in 2021), contact tracing, management of international borders and MIQ, as well as the country’s economic measures.
The social cohesion and trust aspects of the pandemic response, particularly around vaccine and mask mandates, were also investigated.
Most of the 13,000 submissions made to the Royal Commission were critical of some part of New Zealand’s Covid response, Blakely said, however many also held a positive range of views.
Some of the strongest views were around vaccine and mask mandates, he said.
The enduring theme of the submissions was that the height of the pandemic response was a difficult time that impacted many people’s lives. But those opinions diverged when it came to whether that pain was acceptable or not.
Former director general of health Sir Ashley Bloomfield reflects on that fateful day. (Source: Breakfast)
The lessons learned
There were many lessons to be taken from New Zealand’s response to the pandemic, Blakely said.
Among those were around how to make good decisions that look after people – and not just from a health perspective.
The resilience of the health system and how to keep business-as-usual healthcare like screenings going during a future pandemic was another focus, as were more logistical and supply chain issues.
New Zealand did “remarkably well from poor preparation” in responding to Covid-19 but could have “absolutely” done better, Blakely said.
He described the country’s Covid efforts as a “game of two halves”. While the first year of managing the pandemic went well, he said, the “wheels became a bit wobbly” after that.
The balance of the elimination strategy and management of the MIQ system are two issues critics say should be included. (Source: 1News)
Making recommendations
Today’s report includes 39 recommendations that Blakely told 1News are highly actionable for improving on New Zealand’s future pandemic response.
Those recommendations include the all-of-government level planning that the Royal Commission says needs to happen now.
“We are not powerless, we can anticipate scenarios … of future pandemics and invest now to optimise our readiness and our preparation for the next pandemic,” Blakely said.
While he could not go into further details around those recommendations, he did touch on vaccine mandates, saying any future mandates would need to be approached in a more considered way and used where the “benefits far outweigh the harms”.
Preparing for phase two of the Inquiry
This is what Kiwis are being asked as a Royal Commission opens to public submissions. (Source: 1News)
With the report from Phase One of the Royal Commission being delivered today, Phase Two is due to begin tomorrow (November 29) with new commissioners.
The second phase of the inquiry was announced earlier this year with expanded terms of reference. Minister van Velden said in June the second phase met the requirements of the Government’s coalition agreements to expand the inquiry.
Phase Two is due to report back in February 2026.
The first phase of the Royal Commission was broad, Blakely said, however the second phase may find some information that wasn’t unearthed the first time around. He said one area that Phase Two will investigate that the first phase didn’t was around vaccine safety and harms.
While it’s up to the Government to decide when to publish the findings of today’s first report, Blakely said he’s hopeful it will be released soon.
“The next pandemic may not be far away,” he said. “Let’s get [the report] out there.”
