Former Covid-19 minister Chris Hipkins said while New Zealand did well in the initial stages of the Covid-19 battle, he did think Auckland's lengthy lockdown in 2021 may have gone on too long.
Former Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
In an interview with TVNZ's Q+A on Sunday, Hipkins reflected on the frenetic two years he spent as Covid-19 response minister.
Hipkins said he was proud of the overall results that New Zealand achieved compared to other countries.
"We've had the lowest mortality rate in the OECD," he said. "Japan and New Zealand right at the bottom of the table there."
"I think we can be really proud of what we've achieved as a country."
But Hipkins said it was always going to be hard once Covid-19 was in the community and the borders began reopening.
Asked if he had regrets, Hipkins said it is easy to look back with the knowledge we have now, but "you still have to make decisions based on the information that you had at the time."
Hipkins told Q+A that some restrictions may have gone on too long.
"I think there were probably some areas where we could have moved more quickly to step down some restrictions," he said.
"I think that lockdown in Auckland at the end of 2021 ... I think nerves were pretty frayed by that and we should acknowledge that. Aucklanders paid a big price for our ongoing suppression of Delta while we got our vaccination rates up."
Auckland spent more than 100 days in lockdown starting in August 2021.
As Hipkins prepares to take on his new role as Police Minister and hands the Covid-19 portfolio to Dr Ayesha Verrall, he said that the role was now primarily a health system response rather than involving lockdown and border controls.
"We're in a very different space when it comes to Covid-19 now," he said. "We've moved well past the elimination strategy that we had for the better part of two years.
"We're now in a position where we just have to adjust and we have to accept the reality that Covid-19 is here, it's here to stay and we have to just learn to do things differently."