Lance Jennings

"I don't think there's any need to panic (because of the COVID-19 pandemic). We manage these things the same as we manage influenza. The sensible thing (to do) at this point is to increase awareness of what is going on overseas. We can't treat the virus at the present time, so what we can do is use simple personal protection and public health interventions ... should it enter New Zealand."

"It was important to make the (COVID-19) disease notifiable. Although it did not appear to be as deadly as the previous SARS and MERS strains, there was still much to learn about it."