ZB ZB
Live now
Start time
Playing for
End time
Listen live
Listen to NAME OF STATION
Up next
Listen live on
ZB

Bloomfield: Some Covid vaccine centres could pause to balance supply

Author
Michael Neilson, NZ Herald ,
Publish Date
Wed, 16 Jun 2021, 1:06PM

Bloomfield: Some Covid vaccine centres could pause to balance supply

Author
Michael Neilson, NZ Herald ,
Publish Date
Wed, 16 Jun 2021, 1:06PM

There are two new cases of Covid-19 in recent returnees in managed isolation facilities today and no cases in the community. The seven-day rolling average of new cases detected at the border is two.

Two patients in Middlemore Hospital remain in a stable condition, the Ministry of Health said in today's update.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield, director-general of health, says 891,702 vaccine doses had been administered and yesterday more than 21,000 doses had been administered.

The country remains over 7 per cent ahead of the rollout plan.

Based on data, the Auckland region is running behind rollout schedule, but the region has delivered over a third of the entire country's doses.

No DHBs had stopped their rollouts due to low supplies, Bloomfield said. They were working with the Ministry to ensure they could continue to vaccinate as per their schedules.

The rollout could slow down, and some centres may have to pause, but they were balancing their rollout based on supply, Bloomfield said.

For group 1, 54,000 had first dose and 48,000 second dose.

In group 2, 332,000 had first dose and 230,000 second. In group 3, 145,000 had first does and 34,000 second and in group 4 35,000 had first dose and 4500 second.

Bloomfield said he was pleased at how the vaccine had got to people.

As the vaccine can be stored at 2C-8C, there was no need now to call people in to use up vaccines.

Now was a good time to update contact details with a GP ahead of the general rollout, Bloomfield said.

The latest data around willingness showed 80 per cent over 16 years were likely to get a vaccine or had been vaccinated, up from 69 per cent in March. For Māori it was up to 75 per cent and Pasifika 78 per cent.

It was fantastic to see this high level of willingness, Bloomfield said.

Around 12 per cent remained unwilling and 8 per cent unsure, which remained the challenge, Bloomfield said.

There was no intention to make people take the vaccine, it was not mandatory, but they expected to see growing acceptance as the rollout expanded and it became the social norm.

On vaccination rates, the higher the proportion of people who were vaccinated, up around 90-95 per cent, meant there would be less hospitalisations and less deaths in case of community transmission. That meant if 20 per cent of the population did not get vaccinated, as per the hesitancy, other measures such as scanning and masks could need to continue.

On the Victoria situation, there were five cases reported overnight and all of these were linked to existing outbreaks, an ongoing "trickle of cases" coming through.

There will be an update this afternoon on the quarantine-free travel pause with Victoria, Bloomfield said.

Global Covid-19 cases were declining, about half of the peak in April of over 800,000 cases, Bloomfield said.

However there could be unreported cases in places, international authorities warned.

The United Kingdom, despite their successful vaccination programme, was starting to see an upswing in cases and most cases were the Delta variant.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern would have more to say on the rollout, particularly around group 4 - the general population - rollout tomorrow.

Questions have been raised in recent weeks around New Zealand's vaccine stocks and the speed through which priority groups have been vaccinated.

In the week ending June 6, New Zealand had 189,660 doses of vaccine available for distribution, down from 288,000 the previous week and 327,240 the week before that.

Recently about 50,000 to 60,000 vaccine doses have been arriving weekly, though the Government won't say how many weekly doses are expected, citing commercial sensitivity.

Last week the Government announced an estimated 1 million doses of vaccine would arrive in New Zealand next month, taking overall doses within the country to over 2 million.

As per last week's vaccines update, about 500,000 people across the country had one dose, and more than 276,000 people were fully vaccinated. Overall the rollout was about 10 per cent ahead of its delivery target.

Only two district health boards were behind their targets - Wairarapa and the Auckland Metro DHBs.

Wairarapa was just 14 vaccinations behind schedule, meanwhile Auckland Metro was almost 30,000 doses behind where it planned to be, an increase from 23,000 the week before.

Auckland Metro accounts for 35 per cent of all vaccination doses in the country.

All Aucklanders aged 65 and over will receive a Covid vaccination invitation within the next week.

Four new community vaccination centres are also due to open in Albany, Tamaki, Pukekohe and Takanini by the end of June.

More than 110,000 people aged 65+ in the Auckland region will have received an invitation by text or email by Friday, health officials announced today.

The invitations will be issued automatically via text message or email, so people will not need to do anything until they receive their invitation.

All remaining Group 3 invitations, including the 164,000 Aucklanders who have underlying health conditions, will be sent by mid-July.

Take your Radio, Podcasts and Music with you