Summary
New Zealand’s royal commission into its Covid-19 response found vaccine mandates were reasonable based on available data but acknowledged they harmed social cohesion.
The report praised the country’s elimination strategy for achieving one of the lowest Covid death rates among developed nations while preventing healthcare system collapse.
However, it criticized prolonged lockdowns, weak health system preparedness, and a lack of planning for future crises.
Commissioners urged broad investment in pandemic readiness and emphasized the importance of both frontline and planning staff.
A second phase of the inquiry will review vaccine harms and conclude in 2026.
The “one town” you’re referring to is Auckland, NZ’s economic center and has a third of the country’s population.
Whenever I talk about COVID lockdown with NZers from outside of Auckland they play it down because there was only a few weeks of strict lockdown at the start. However, anyone that lived in the Auckland region can tell you that the lockdowns were long, tough and plentiful. People in Auckland were still stuck in their homes celebrating birthdays alone late 2021. Eventually the government gave up when the Omicron variant exploded and a majority had been vaccinated.