Sir Ashley Bloomfield. Photo: RNZ / Krystal Gibbens
Sir Ashley Bloomfield says he is hopeful New Zealand will mount a strong response to any future pandemics.
On Tuesday, Sir Ashley took part in a summit on pandemic preparedness hosted by Te Niwha in Wellington.
The interim chief executive for the Institute for Environmental Sciences & Research told RNZ New Zealand was better prepared for a pandemic than before Covid-19, but now was not the time for complacency.
"We cannot afford to rest on our laurels. The next pandemic could be at any time and whether we want it or not, we need to be as prepared as possible.
"I'm very hopeful when the next pandemic comes that New Zealand will be able to mount to a very good response," Bloomfield said.
"I have a high degree of faith in New Zealanders to actually pull together, as we've shown we did through Covid-19 and in many other challenging situations."
Phase one of the New Zealand Royal Commission inquiry Covid-19 Lessons Learned will be delivered on 28 November, with Phase 2 to start immediately after.
Summit on pandemic preparedness hosted by Te Niwha in Wellington. Photo: RNZ / Krystal Gibbens
Bloomfield said the focus of any inquiry needed to be on what could be learnt, not to point fingers.
"My one wish really for the inquiries is that they take a really appreciative view at what happened.
"Get to the bottom of things that didn't go so well so that we can learn from them, not so that we can point a finger of blame at anyone."
One of the issues discussed by panellists at the conference was issues around inequity in the Covid response.
Bloomfield said New Zealand saw the differential impact of Covid on vulnerable communities, Māori, Pasifika, people with mental health and addiction issues and disabled people.
"We need to absolutely factor in those communities into our preparation and our response.
"One of the things that was a lesson or learning for me from Covid-19 was the importance of making very deliberate efforts to communicate with those different groups right from the start."
On a global scale he said there were also big inequities between countries for access to vaccines and treatments.
WHO epidemiologist says the time for pandemic preparedness is now
World Health Organisation (WHO) epidemiologist Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, who spoke at the summit, said although much of the world seems to have forgotten Covid, it did not mean the pandemic risk had gone away.
She said dismantling systems used to support the pandemic were a mistake, and that what we learnt through Covid needed to be leveraged to help address future outbreaks.
Van Kerkhove said every outbreak was an opportunity to learn.
She cautioned globally inequity and engaging communities were areas that countries were still failing in.
The summit will continue for another two days.