Royal Commission hears of Covid lockdown impacts on Auckland, Northland

Grant Illingworth, KC, chairman of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic response, is leading the investigation into how the Government managed the crisis. Photo / RNZ

By RNZ

Research experts looking into the Covid-19 lockdowns say having people report breaches was highly ineffective and burdensome, as the first public hearings into New Zealand’s Covid response continue.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid-19 is looking into the Government’s response to the pandemic and its effects.

This week’s hearings particularly concentrate on the impact of the extended lockdown in Auckland and Northland in 2021 and on vaccine mandates and safety.

On Tuesday, Dr Antje Deckert told the inquiry that 63,000 lockdown breaches were reported to police by citizens during levels 4, 3 and 2.

Police road stops were also counter-productive because officers were often unclear on how to enforce lockdown rules, she said.

Experts say public reporting of lockdown breaches was ineffective and burdensome. Photo / RNZ

Deckert said people found it difficult balancing Government messaging of being kind while also enforcing lockdown rules.

Representatives from the disabled community have said they were often a target of abuse during the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Meanwhile, a Pasifika health expert said the Pacific population was over-represented in all aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pasifika Future chief executive Debbie Sorensen said during the Delta-strain outbreak of the pandemic 27% of all cases were Pacific.

“Pacific Covid-19 cases for those aged over 60 had a 30% higher mortality rate, we were over-represented in every single figure that related to the outbreak right through all phases.”

Auckland Council disability advisory group co-chairman Barry De Geest said because disabled people were often mask or vaccine exempt, it led to cases of discrimination.

“The number of people we had crying because they’d been uptown or done something and they were being abused by people saying ‘put your mask on’, ‘think of us’, there was so much of that.”

De Geest said more thought needed to be put towards the social side of how disabled people could be supported and entertained in a lockdown.

General practitioner Dr Fiona Bolden said more people would have died of Covid-19 if not for the lockdowns imposed by the Government during the pandemic.

New Zealand’s health system would not have been able to cope had the Government acted like other nations, she said.

“If we had gone ahead as happened in other countries, we would’ve had extreme difficulty in managing that number of extremely unwell people and I’m sure more people would’ve died as a result.”

Elderly advocates said the digitisation of essential services during the Covid lockdowns created obstacles for some senior citizens.

An inquiry has heard how disabled and Pasifika communities faced abuse and challenges during Covid-19 lockdowns. Photo / Getty Images

Age Concern New Zealand’s Karen Billings-Jensen said there were challenges for elderly people who were not digitally connected.

“For those who had family support, those issues were easily resolved, but we even find now that increased digitalisation of support services still creates a challenge. I guess for those who were already socially isolated the loss of any support system they did have was hard and the bubble of one was really difficult.”

Billings-Jensen said many elderly were still reluctant to leave their homes, fearful of being exposed to new strains of Covid.

Monday’s hearing included perspectives from business sectors based in Auckland, Northland and Waikato.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins told Morning Report he had been co-operating with the inquiry as much as possible and he was working through answering “a relatively big list of questions” sent last week.

– RNZ