Sir Ashley Bloomfield, of Lower Hutt, KNZM for services to public health
Sir Ashley Bloomfield was the Director-General of Health from 2018 until 2022 and led the health sector and the successful management of the government’s public health response in New Zealand to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under intense scrutiny and daily public reporting, Sir Ashley has worked at a relentless pace for two years to drive and implement major policy decisions that have underpinned New Zealand’s response to the pandemic. Early on, he began providing regular press conference updates to inform the public about the virus, becoming the public face, alongside the Prime Minister, of the Government’s response to COVID-19. His clear and calm communication has been key to ensuring trust in the Government’s public health advice, with the public positioning him as New Zealand’s most well-known and highly respected public servant during the pandemic. He led the Ministry of Health (MoH) in establishing a national contact tracing centre, increasing resourcing for Healthline as a single source of information for the public and sourcing personal protective equipment. Sir Ashley led the MoH in standing up the first managed isolation and quarantine facilities, sourcing and operationalising testing services, and rolling out the country’s most ambitious vaccination programme, through which more than 90 percent of eligible New Zealanders were fully vaccinated.