Review of the New Zealand’s COVID-19 Elimination Plan and the Mental Health Fall out on Vulnerable Groups

Abstract

Around the time when several countries battle with COVID-19 pandemic, the New Zealand implemented an elimination strategy- a headway   that successfully eliminated the novel SARS-CoV-2 from   Aotearoa/ New Zealand. A review of the elimination plan shows an extended and   strict restrictions on social contact   that could cause mental health fall out particularly among the vulnerable groups such as the aged, prisoners, and people with preexisting mental health issues. For a proactive action against these after-lockdown possibilities, surveillance of the risk factors among the vulnerable groups, deliberate interventional psychiatric and psychological care, and investment in mental health personnel   training should be  first point of action. Hence, this paper aims at drawing attention to these needed  response.