New Zealand'S Approach In Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic eBook

Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject Health - Public Health, grade: 1.0, University of Erfurt (Willy Brandt School of Public Policy), course: PUblic Policy, language: English, abstract: In this paper, the authors highlighted the responses by the New Zealand government in curtailing the virus and the lessons evident for current and future policy making. The world has experienced a wide array of influenza pandemics ranging from 1918's H1N1, Hong Kong's H5N1 in 1997, Suden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) in 2003 to 2012's Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV), among others. As the world bade farewell to 2019, news of a coronavirus disease emerged from Wuhan in China. The human disease, which studies have since linked to severe acute respiratory coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) as its cause, was lethal, unstoppable, and fast propagating; even the severe containment measures, such as, the lockdown, could not halt the increasing number of infections. Global-health scholars argue that there was a lack of a global, coherent response since 30 January 2020 regardless of WHO s earlier warning through a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), and hence a lapse in time to respond, cost the world in containing the virus. New Zealand s COVID-19 response success story points to a clear direction of an early decisive response from health authorities, enabling surveillance systems, targeted testing, and most importantly the involvement of the community through a bottom-up approach.