Jab rates poised to ramp up

Over 65s and those with underlying health conditions will be able to book their Covid19 vaccination appointment by the end of the month.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins yesterday outlined how vaccinations will track up in the coming weeks. He said all in group 3 would be able to book their vaccinations before the end of July. However, this didn’t guarantee people would be able to make an appointment right away, he added.

About 180,000 Kiwis in group 3 have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 with more than 1,553,000 doses administered around the country. ‘‘By end of this month we will have infrastructure in place to manage the largest vaccination programme New Zealand has ever taken.’’

More than 9500 vaccinators have been trained and there are more than 600 vaccination centres around the country. Hipkins expected the country’s tally to hit 2 million doses in the next two weeks. A daily high point was also recorded on Tuesday when more than 30,358 doses were given.

Of the 1,553,035 doses administered, 628,259 were second doses, meaning those people were now fully vaccinated.

Vaccinations would ramp up to around 50,000 doses a day. ‘‘These numbers will continue to get bigger and we’ll be vaccinating upwards of 70,000 people on some days in the weeks ahead,’’ Hipkins said.

It comes after the largest shipment of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to date landed in Auckland. More than 370,000 doses arrived on Sunday.