New Zealand Expands Scope of Inquiry Into Government’s Handling of COVID-19

Published on February 5, 2024

New Zealanders will get to have their views on the previous Labour government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic after the scope of the inquiry was expanded. Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden announced the change on the back of a tri-party coalition agreement at the 2023 election.  According to statistics from health agency, Te Whatu Ora, accurate at the time of writing, 3,768 people died from COVID-19, or had it listed as a contributing factor of death. An inquiry is currently being undertaken by a Royal Commission investigation, announced by the former government on Dec. 8, 2022. It began considering evidence in February 2023, and was supposed to consider lessons to be learned from New Zealand’s response to COVID-19 and how to improve in future....