Lockdown could be lengthy
A confidential Government plan for managing the coronavirus lockdown has warned that crisis measures could remain in place for a long time.
Stuff obtained the details from the April 1 copy of the Government’s National Action Plan, from the National Crisis Management Centre (NCMC).
The plan said there was a ‘‘likelihood that the response will have to be sustained over a protracted period before a transition to recovery can be considered’’.
It did not go into detail about what the Government would want to see before the country’s Level 4 lockdown ended. Nor did it specify what a ‘‘protracted period’’ means.
Eventually, it said, there would be a discussion with an official, called a ‘‘recovery manager’’, who would identify ‘‘when/if [the country] can begin transition from response to recovery’’, but did not detail what that discussion would be or when it needed to be held.
A spokesman for the Government said ‘‘action plans are standard operational documents produced during emergency responses that describe how response objectives will be achieved.
‘‘They set out what the overall mission is, what the objectives are, and the high level approach and tasks that will be undertaken to achieve those objectives.
‘‘This operational document ensures everyone involved with delivering the response is on the same page and is clear about what they need to do.’’
It’s understood the document was circulated around top officials in central and local government.
The Government was understood to be looking at ways to exit the Level 4 lockdown, including isolating regions where the virus persists, but that work was at an early stage and hadn’t been made public
The leaked plan warned that protecting the capacity of the health system was a top priority.
It said that while ‘‘New Zealand has an excellent health system’’ there was ‘‘a limit to the services that are able to be provided, which may well be tested during an outbreak of a Covid-19 with pandemic potential’’.
That would vary region-to-region,
‘‘[This document] ensures everyone involved with delivering the response is on the same page and is clear about what they need to do.’’
where some areas ‘‘the health system already reaches capacity at peak times’’.
The plan warned that while the Level 4 alert — effectively a national lockdown — had been set out for an initial four weeks, that would be ‘‘monitored and reviewed’’ which could mean the level 4 period being ‘‘amended’’.
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said yesterday the Government didn’t have a ‘‘plan B’’ if the lockdown failed. It would stay in the ‘‘stamp it out’’ phase as long as necessary.