New system met with cautious optimism

In the Southern district, 71.3% of Maori have had at least one dose and 53.2% are fully vaccinated.

‘‘We welcome all support to reach our vulnerable Maori communities and will look at what the additional funding might mean for our efforts in Southern,’’ Mr Brown said.

Dunedin Mayor Aaron Hawkins said being able to live with relatively few restrictions once the vaccine target was reached would be great for the collective wellbeing of the community.

He believed there was also a moral obligation to make sure the 90% vaccination rate was evenly spread across communities, whether that be by age, neighbourhood or ethnicity.

The target needed to be ‘‘a floor and not a ceiling’’.

‘‘It’s the absolute minimum we need, not just in terms of hitting the targets that have been set by the Government today, but making sure we limit the public health risk.’’

Southland Mayor Gary Tong said people needed to accept Covid was probably here to stay and they had to do their best to protect

themselves and others.

‘‘There will be those who don’t want to protect themselves, and their world will shrink around them,’’ he said.

He was hopeful the South could reach the 90% target. He and Gore Mayor Tracy Hicks would be taking their caravans and DHB vaccinators around more remote parts of Southland to help people get vaccinated.

He believed any move to get people travelling and out and about in their communities would be welcomed by businesses as well.

To Queenstown Lakes Mayor Jim Boult, it was good the trafficlight system would encourage

more people to get vaccinated.

But he was concerned about how realistic it was to expect every health board to reach the 90% target.

‘‘I just don’t think we’re going to get there,’’ he said.

‘‘There could be one small pocket that doesn’t and we’re stuck with what we’ve got.’’

Philip Wheble, West Coast DHB senior officer responsible for the Covid19 response, said he expected Coast GPs and pharmacies would be able to vaccinate people from early in the new year.

Both DHB and Poutini Waiora staff had been phoning people who had not engaged in the programme to invite them to get

vaccinated.

‘‘We are working with our health system partners to reduce as many barriers as possible to enable the remaining 6000 eligible West Coasters to get vaccinated.’’

Mr Wheble said Coast vaccination rates were proportionately lower among youth (aged 1219) and younger adults (1924). He believed that was partly because the rollout initially focused on older people.

There were 2,902,031 people fully vaccinated as of yesterday, 69% of the eligible population. — Additional reporting Greymouth