DHB’s vaccine progress a mystery
With just days to go before the Covid-19 vaccination programme expands to target 60- to 65-year-olds, MidCentral Health cannot say how many people in the higher-priority group 3 are still to be immunised.
Ministry of Health figures show MidCentral has delivered 63,857 doses of the vaccine so far, with one in four people aged over 15 years receiving at least one jab.
For the whole of New Zealand, 295,593 people in group 3, those over 65 years or with underlying health conditions, have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
But MidCentral could not say how many of the estimated 50,800 people in its district in group 3 had been vaccinated.
There was no target for what proportion of group 3 vaccinations should be delivered before the next group became eligible.
The district health board’s Covid19 vaccination programme senior responsible officer, Debbie Davies, said the 50,800 figure was an estimate of the number of people in the district in group 3.
That was because the eligibility criteria included age, underlying health conditions, disability or caring for someone with a disability, and pregnancy.
‘‘A complete dataset of the population with relevant conditions is not available with the level of detail and quality required to define the population accurately.’’
That meant trying to work out what proportion had been vaccinated would give an inaccurate result.
A new phone number went live yesterday to help those in group 3 who had not yet received an invitation to make an appointment.
Until then, people in group 3 had been told they did not have to do anything, because they would be contacted by text, email, letter or a phone call to tell them when it was their turn to book an appointment.
‘‘We recognise there are some eligible people who we may not have contacted yet,’’ Davies said.
‘‘This may be due to a range of reasons, including their current contact details being missing or out of date in our system.’’
Other people had found they could be proactive about registering their interest in getting an appointment online or by phone.
The National Immunisation Booking System now made that the norm, via 0800 28 29 26.
Anyone in groups 1, 2 or 3 who had not had a vaccination yet could still book one.
The national director of the Covid-19 vaccine and immunisation programme, Jo Gibbs, said the team wanted everyone in group 3 to have the opportunity before Wednesday to book a vaccine appointment.
That was when the online booking tool, Book My Vaccine, would go live for the first cohort of group 4.
Davies said between 1000 and 2000 people across the MidCentral district were receiving a vaccination every weekday, with between 500 and 700 on Saturdays.
MidCentral’s first rural vaccination clinic will be in Eketā huna today. Residents aged 16 and over have been invited to register for the clinic, which will be for booked patients only, with no walk-ins.