New Zealand Pandemic Plan (interim update)
In July 2024, the Ministry of Health published an interim update to the New Zealand Pandemic Plan. This replaces the previous national pandemic plan, the New Zealand Influenza Pandemic Plan (2nd edition, 2017).
It sets out the health system strategy and framework for actions in preparing for and responding to future pandemics. While the plan is focused on respiratory pathogens, such as influenza and COVID-19, it can be adopted and applied (with adaptations as necessary) to any pandemic, regardless of the nature of the pathogen and its severity.
The interim update to the plan is limited in scope and reflects changes to how the health system is run since the 2022 reforms and some of the early lessons from the COVID-19 response. It is part of a wider pandemic preparedness review taking place in two stages, with a fuller more comprehensive review commencing in 2024. This two-stage approach means the interim plan can reflect the changes in who does what in the health system since the 2022 health reforms and ensure those changed roles and responsibilities are clear if a new pandemic was to occur tomorrow.
Why we all must plan for a pandemic
We live in a highly interconnected and populous world with diverse opportunities for new pathogens to emerge and generate a global pandemic.
There will be another global pandemic at some point that will affect New Zealand. While we cannot predict when this will occur or what the causal pathogen will be, what we can do is be well-prepared.
It is important that individuals, workplaces and Government plan for a pandemic so we can:
- minimise the impact of the disease on the people of New Zealand
- enable society to continue to function as normally as possible during and after a pandemic
- minimise the impact on our economy.
The Ministry of Health is working with Health New Zealand, the wider health sector and other government agencies to ensure New Zealand is as prepared as possible for a future pandemic.
