New Zealand’s former COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins expressed regret over the length of lockdowns in Auckland that started in August 2021 and lasted for over three months.
Speaking to TVNZ Q + A, Hipkins said if the government had known the information that it knows now, one of the things that it would have done differently is scaling down restrictions faster.
“There were probably some areas we could have moved more quickly to step down some restrictions. That lockdown in Auckland at the end of 2021, I think nerves were pretty frayed by the end of that, and we should acknowledge that….