New Zealand Covid response saved 20,000 lives, study says

Then New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern receives a Covid vaccination on January 17, 2022. A new study suggests her government’s pandemic strategy saved 20,000 lives. Photograph: Hannah Peters/Getty Images

New Zealand’s globally praised Covid response saved about 20,000 lives, new research shows.

The report, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal, looks at the impact of the nation’s strategy, which included an almost complete international border closure for two years and strict lockdowns for days or weeks at a time.