Recommendation 19

The Department told us that it had not been complacent over the stockpiles, but that COVID-19 was a novel virus and it learned more about it over time. Unlike influenza, COVID-19 can be passed on by people who are not showing symptoms of the illness. The Department explained that this meant government needed to provide PPE to a much larger group of people to stop the spread of the virus. It also said that while there were vaccines and antiviral medication available for managing influenza, this was not the case with COVID19, and that government did not have the gowns needed for managing COVID-19 because its infection control policy had been to use aprons rather than gowns.29 The experience of frontline organisations