Level 4 lockdown was to buy time, not eliminate coronavirus, government minister says

Friday, 22 May 2020

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces the coronavirus alert system. First published, March 22.

Cabinet was still expecting New Zealand's hospitals to be 'completely overrun' by coronavirus when it moved to into level 4 lockdown, the education minister told a group of high school students on Thursday.

While speaking to students at Taita College, Chris Hipkins said the Government thought they were buying themselves extra time when they placed the country into lockdown.

This is despite calling the lockdown 'Level 4 - Eliminate' when the alert system was announced.

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'We thought we were still going to end up in the situation that other countries around the world have, of their health system being completely overrun, with people who are very, very ill with Covid-19.'

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Chris Hipkins said when cabinet made the decision to move to alert level 4, they thought they were buying time, not eliminating the virus.

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'We thought if we could buy ourselves another month, we could get more ventilators, we could get more hospital beds ready, we could get more staff trained, we could be better prepared, so more people would survive.

'Rather than what we have ended up doing, which is actually coming out of the other side of the lockdown in a far better position than almost any other country, anywhere around the world.'

When the Government announced the lockdown in March, it was pitched as a strategy to eliminate the virus.

At the time, it was referred to as 'Level 4 - Eliminate'. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand could stop the spread of Covid-19 by staying at home.

New Zealand has only had two new coronavirus cases in the past 10 days and restrictions are slowly being lifted.

A Ministry of Health spokesperson said the country moved from level 2 to level 3 and rapidly to level 4 as New Zealand had escalating case numbers.

'New Zealand was heading into the exponential rise in cases that had been seen elsewhere internationally and to break that chain of transmission we needed to act at that time.'

The Prime Ministers Office and the Ministry of Health have both been approached for comment.