New Zealand Pandemic Plan

Objectives

Provide an adaptable, all-of-government framework for preparing for, responding to and recovering from respiratory-pathogen pandemics, particularly influenza and coronaviruses, while supporting other events with pandemic potential. Its overarching aim is to minimise deaths, serious illness, health inequities and disruption to communities, health services, society and the economy, while enabling New Zealand to function as normally as possible.[1][2][3]

• Apply a six-phase Action Framework: Plan For It, Keep It Out, Stamp It Out, Manage It, Manage It: Post-Peak, and Recover From It.[4][5]
• Use proportionate, evidence-informed and risk-based measures that can be tailored to pathogen characteristics, transmission, severity, population susceptibility, health-service pressure and changing domestic and international conditions.[6][7][8]
• Ground decisions in pae ora, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, equity, proportionality, science-based advice, human rights and the protection of priority populations.[9][10][11]
• Prevent or delay importation through border controls; contain or eliminate domestic clusters where feasible; reduce widespread transmission and health-service pressure; and restore health, communities, services and society during recovery.[5][12][13]
• Address disproportionate risks for Māori, Pacific peoples, disabled people, rural communities, women, marginalised populations and people at greater risk of severe disease through co-design, targeted support, accessible services and disaggregated data.[14][15][16]
• Apply a One Health approach that recognises the interdependence of human, animal and ecosystem health, including preparedness for zoonotic threats.[17][18]
• Maintain essential health care, medicines, vaccination, welfare, infrastructure, education, law and order, supply chains and public information during a pandemic.[19][20][21]

Implementation

Implement the plan through coordinated national, regional and local action led by the Ministry of Health, with Health New Zealand leading operational planning and coordination of health service providers. The plan informs agency-specific operational plans rather than prescribing every delivery detail, and Ministers and Cabinet determine the overall response strategy and phase transitions for a particular event.[2][22][5]

• Coordinate all-of-government activity through the Intersectoral Pandemic Group and its work streams across health, biosecurity, welfare, education, border management, external affairs, economy, infrastructure, workplaces, law and order and emergency management.[23][24][25]
• Activate the Officials Committee for Domestic and External Security Coordination system and, where needed, the National Crisis Management Centre for strategic all-of-government decisions and coordination.[26][23]
• Operate health emergency coordination through the National Health Coordination Centre and Health New Zealand’s National Coordination Centre, using the Coordinated Incident Management System without replacing normal clinical, managerial, statutory or service-delivery responsibilities.[27][28]
• Assign the Ministry for Primary Industries responsibility for animal-disease response, surveillance, strain identification and liaison on suspected human cases, while the Ministry of Health leads once animal disease spreads between people.[27][29]
• Enable local health coordinators, medical officers of health and civil defence emergency management controllers to work jointly, with health coordinators leading local pandemic command and control, medical officers of health exercising statutory powers and leading clinical public health services, and controllers managing community resources.[29][28]
• Maintain preparedness through training, exercising, business-continuity planning, surge staffing, stockpiles, vaccine-access arrangements, laboratory capability, isolation and quarantine capacity, and community engagement.[30][31]
• Use multisource surveillance, laboratory testing, genomic and wastewater surveillance, case investigation, contact tracing, modelling, health-service demand monitoring and international intelligence to guide action across phases.[32][33][34]
• Undertake regular risk assessments, review decisions and scale measures up or down according to their effectiveness, proportionality, rights impacts, public acceptability, feasibility and social and economic consequences.[7][35][36]
• Apply statutory powers under the Health Act 1956, Epidemic Preparedness Act 2006, Civil Defence Emergency Management Act 2002 and related legislation only where necessary and proportionate, while retaining the capacity to respond without emergency declarations.[37][38][19]
• Partner with iwi, hapū, Māori communities and providers; Pacific leaders and providers; disability organisations; ethnic communities; local authorities; non-governmental organisations; and community networks to support locally appropriate, community-led action.[39][40][41][16]
• Deliver accessible, culturally safe and phase-specific public communications through digital, media, helpline, community and alternative formats; communicate uncertainty transparently; and monitor misinformation, public sentiment and feedback.[42][43][44]
• Evaluate exercises, response measures and recovery activities through after-action reviews, systematic evaluations, debriefs and lessons-learned processes, then revise plans, guidance and protocols.[45][46][47]
• Fund and manage clinical supplies through Health New Zealand, with the Ministry of Health setting policy for strategic reserves and approving their use; the plan does not specify overall budgets, funding allocations or quantified financing requirements.[20][48]

Monitoring & Evaluation

The plan establishes a comprehensive, phase-based monitoring, surveillance and review system to guide pandemic preparedness, response, recovery and accountability. It relies on regular risk assessment, multisource intelligence, adaptable phase transitions, interagency reporting and continuous learning, while leaving most quantitative targets and reporting frequencies unspecified.[4][32][49]

• Maintain multisource surveillance across pandemic phases, including clinical, epidemiological, virological, mortality, laboratory, genomic, wastewater, sentinel, absenteeism and health-service data.[32][33][34]
• Collect demographic information, including ethnicity, and improve data disaggregation to identify inequities in exposure, transmission, severe illness, access to services and the effects of public health measures.[15][8][33]
• Monitor overseas developments, pathogen characteristics, animal health threats, international epidemiological trends and World Health Organization alerts to support early detection and preparedness.[37][31][18]
• Use human and animal surveillance, laboratory capability and border-health reporting to detect novel pathogens, imported cases, zoonotic threats and domestic pandemic progression.[37][50][51][52]
• Assess transmission, severity, population susceptibility, health inequalities, treatment resistance, vaccine effectiveness, health-service demand, workforce absence and critical-service capacity to inform escalation, de-escalation and adaptation of measures.[53][54][55][56][57]
• Track pandemic intelligence across government, including border movements, workforce and student absence, economic impacts, critical infrastructure effects and community impacts.[23][49]
• Report nationally and internationally, including notification to the World Health Organization under the International Health Regulations 2005 and reporting through the National Health Coordination Centre and National Crisis Management Centre.[58][59][32][60]
• Use situation reports and intelligence summaries to support operational coordination, policy advice and decision-making by agencies, Ministers and Cabinet.[26][61][62]
• Assign final responsibility for major phase transitions to Ministers and Cabinet, supported by regular risk assessments and high-level transition triggers.[5][63]
• Hold the Ministry of Health accountable for overall implementation and stewardship of the plan, with Health New Zealand leading operational health-service planning and coordination.[29][39][27]
• Require agencies to monitor, evaluate and report on their sectoral activities through Intersectoral Pandemic Group work streams, while maintaining information flows with regional and local providers.[32][22]
• Evaluate health, emergency and continuity plans after exercises, undertake further training where needed, and measure the National Exercise Programme against national objectives.[45][64][65]
• Maintain a response evaluation framework covering outcomes, outputs, process performance and impacts on priority populations, and undertake mid-action, after-action and recovery reviews.[31][35][46]
• Review restrictive measures regularly, document rights impacts and exemptions, and withdraw restrictions as soon as risks abate.[36]
• Monitor communications effectiveness, public sentiment, compliance, misinformation and feedback from communities and frontline staff, then adapt public information accordingly.[66][42][67][44]
• Review and revise plans as evidence evolves, including substantive review following the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons Learned and consideration of International Health Regulations amendments.[2][68]

The plan specifies extensive monitoring processes and institutional responsibilities, but generally does not provide a consolidated quantitative indicator framework, numerical performance targets, routine reporting timetable, independent audit mechanism or common evaluation methodology.[6][16][23][49]

Costing & Financing

The plan recognises that pandemic preparedness, response and recovery require scalable resources and that decisions should consider economic, social and financial consequences. However, it does not provide a consolidated pandemic budget, quantified funding requirements, funding gap, financing source or monetary economic assumptions.[3][8][21][69]

• Consider the cost, cost-effectiveness, feasibility, expected public-health benefit and interaction of measures when selecting proportionate pandemic actions.[70][71][11]
• Assess direct and indirect financial, economic and social effects on individuals, whānau, communities, businesses, trade, tourism, supply chains, tax revenue and exchange rates.[54][66][72]
• Scale welfare, financial support, funding, workforce and surge capacity according to expected pandemic impact, including support for individuals and businesses affected by public health measures.[73][7]
• Recognise that pandemic severity, duration, uncertainty, supply-chain disruption, confidence and return-to-work timing influence economic harm and recovery.[74]
• Maintain resource-dependent preparedness capabilities, including stockpiles, vaccine access, laboratory capacity, surge staffing, quarantine and isolation facilities, border functions and public communications.[30][31][50]
• Fund and manage clinical supplies through Health New Zealand, while the Ministry of Health determines the composition and approves use of strategic reserves.[20][75][48]
• Maintain an advanced purchase agreement with vaccine manufacturers, in place since January 2010, although no financial value is specified.[75]
• Plan vaccine procurement by considering cost, timeliness, effectiveness and societal benefits from reducing pandemic impacts.[54]
• Provide for public awareness campaign resources through pre-approval of a production budget and media partners, without a stated amount.[67]
• Consider business subsidies, worker compensation, financial assistance and welfare support as possible measures, while leaving their funding mechanisms and eligibility details unspecified.[72][21][76]
• Recognise substantial recovery resource needs for restoring routine health services, addressing backlogs and supporting social, economic, built and natural-environment recovery.[77][69]
• Allow Health New Zealand to commission services or distribute funding to Māori communities seriously affected by a pandemic, without specifying allocations.[78]

Although the plan identifies resource pressures, strategic reserves, procurement needs and potential financial support, no explicit expenditure totals, programme budgets, unit costs, funding allocations, resource-mobilisation targets or quantified funding gaps are supplied.[30][62][21][69]