The first segment of the 2 million people in group 4 are now eligible to receive their Pfizer doses, beginning with 60 to 64-year-olds, the government has confirmed
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the Covid-19 vaccination programme is significantly expanding from today, with another 350,000 dose shipment of vaccines arriving yesterday.
Ardern, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall held a media briefing on the start of the major new phase of the country’s vaccine rollout.
Watch the briefing here:
Ardern said the Te Awa vaccination centre in Hamilton, where the statement is being held, is the largest in Waikato and thanked the team at the centre and Tainui for their help.
Some 1.7 million first doses have been administered in New Zealand, and 699,479 have had a second dose.
Ardern said the vaccination programme is significantly expanding from today.
From today, the first segment of the 2 million people in group 4 are eligible to receive their Pfizer doses, beginning with 60 to 64-year-olds.
It is expected to be some time before the majority of group 4 will be vaccinated despite the government promising July would coincide with a ramping up of the vaccination programme.
Border workers, frontline workers, the vulnerable and those aged over 65 – people in the first three groups – have been the priority until now.
“Over the last week there has been a 40 percent increase in the number of vaccines administered, 204,943 in the past seven days with that number set to keep rising,” Ardern said.
She said a 350,000 dose shipment of vaccines arrived yesterday, bringing total July deliveries to 1 million.
Some 1.5 million more are expected to arrive in August, she said. There are now 676 vaccination sites up and running around New Zealand including GPs and pharmacies, she said.
The vaccine booking call centre has received over 75,000 calls in the five days it has been operational.
More than 200,000 bookings were made today alone and there are more than 840,000 future bookings in the system.
Ardern said with the the number already vaccinated, 70 percent of all New Zealanders aged over 65 have either already been vaccinated “or are scheduled to be”.
From today, people aged over 60 will receive instructions to book a vaccine using the online booking system or by calling the 0800 number.
Ardern said the rapidity of being able to book people in depends on where people are in the country, but “I can assure you than no matter what there is a vaccine for everyone”.
She said everyone eligible will be able to be vaccinated this year.
“The only thing we’re asking you to do is to book and show up.”
The briefing coincides with criticism from a prominent South Auckland councillor about the first mass vaccination event due to take place in Manukau over the weekend.
Efeso Collins told RNZ there had been a low uptake of bookings initially because of poor communication with the community.
He blamed people in “ivory towers” planning for communities they know nothing about.
It is hoped 15,000 people will be vaccinated during the three-day event that starts on Friday.
Ardern said the first mass vaccination event is being run as a trial, and part of what is being trialled is how to reach people. “This will help us learn for future events”.
She said it was not a cultural failing. “We’ve got over 15,000 people booked for the event. We’ll learn from this one to see what went well, what we need to do differently … but it is the first”.
She said she does not want to give a report on the event’s success before it has even taken place.
Ardern said yesterday was a record day of vaccinations with more than 38,000 delivered in one day.
“That’s what we want to continue to see as we scale up across the country, as we open more sites, and we see more people book.”
Workplace vaccination is also being planned along with the possibility of vaccinations at marae and schools.
The 1 million people in group 3 have been able to be prioritised, she said, and no one will miss out by bringing in the roughly 160,000 aged 60-65. “We need to maintain the momentum of the vaccine rollout.”
She said it’s the big increase in deliveries this month and next month that is allowing the rollout to ramp up.
Bloomfield gave the Covid-19 numbers update. He said he does not want to overemphasise the significance of having no new cases in the community, with community cases seen in Australia – and not just in New South Wales.
He says he chairs a two-hour meeting every week to manage the rollout of the vaccination programme, and as it scales up there is an increasing number of providers coming on board.
The number of GPs and pharmacies that are coming on board is much greater than the authorities expected at the outset, he said.
All the testing after the two positive wastewater tests last week have come back negative, he said, but additional testing capacity remains in place in New Plymouth. He said anyone who has symptoms should ring Healthline and get a test.
Verrall said when people were experiencing traditional cold and flu symptoms they cannot assume it’s RSV and need to be aware it could be Covid-19 and seek advice about getting a test.
She said there had been no change to health protocols and health workers need to be not going into work if they were feeling sick.
Meanwhile, Minister Peeni Henare said he takes great heart in the fact the over-65 Māori population is tracking alongside or in some places ahead of non-Māori populations in vaccination.
He said 77 percent of the Māori population is aged 16-54, and so as the vaccination programme expands to group four, more Māori can be expected to get the vaccine.
He said the government does acknowledge the challenge of reaching rural communities and other communities without access to the internet, which is why the 0800 number has been shared.
He said a lot of things have been done to bring communications to Māori communities, in part led by Māori themselves. There are also a number of events coming up including the King’s coronation and the largest kapa haka event in Auckland at the end of August which could be good opportunities to get the vaccination message out.
