The goal of the surveillance strategy

This version of Aotearoa New Zealand’s COVID-19 Surveillance Strategy replaces the previous versions published in January 2021 and August 2021.

COVID-19 surveillance’s goal is to monitor, evaluate and inform the equitable delivery of Aotearoa New Zealand’s COVID-19 Minimisation and Protection Strategy (of which the COVID-19 Protection Framework will be part).

Effective COVID-19 surveillance gives decision makers timely access to information and evidence to inform action to detect and respond to cases.

Aotearoa New Zealand’s COVID-19 Surveillance Strategy for COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) includes five key objectives as outlined below:

  1. Objective One: monitor and describe the incidence, prevalence, geographic spread, and severity of COVID-19 in the population to estimate the burden of disease, assess trends, viral changes, and inform appropriate prevention and mitigation measures.
  2. Objective Two: assess COVID-19 relevant data and impacts on equity settings and populations at higher-risk for transmission, and poorer clinical and other outcomes.
  3. Objective Three: monitor critical health services, systems, and behaviours with the specific objective of measuring the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the delivery of care in hospitals and the health system, including impact on the workforce and community care.
  4. Objective Four: monitor COVID-19 at the international border, international intelligence and evidence related to the pandemic, and other health security risks (i.e., other communicable and infectious diseases) to determine how they may impact Aotearoa New Zealand.
  5. Objective Five: evaluate the impact of central decision making on the public health response to adjust the choice of strategies, as well as timing and intensity.
  • specific surveillance questions to address each objective and
  • the surveillance activities the health sector does to address the objectives and questions.

Download the surveillance strategy