Border workers may get vaccine early
AUCKLAND: New Zealand’s 10,000 border workers with the highest risk of catching Covid could be vaccinated before the official start of the rollout in April, Covid19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said.
Two of the four vaccines on order have begun the process for approval with Medsafe, Pfizer and Janssen, the Weekend Herald has learned.
Mr Hipkins said the plan was for border workers to be vaccinated within a fortnight of the first Pfizer batch of 200,000 courses arriving, which is estimated to be at the start of March.
‘‘At this point, we don’t know exactly when it is going to be,’’ Mr Hipkins said.
‘‘It could be three weeks from now or it could be the last week of March, but it is more likely to be the beginning of March from what I understand.
‘‘Our goal is to have our border workers vaccinated within two weeks of them [vaccines] arriving in the country and we are geared up and ready to do that.’’
Those workers were being tested weekly or fortnightly and the vaccination would be built into the testing cycle.
There was nothing at the New Zealand end that was slowing down the country’s ability to vaccinate border workers.
‘‘They are absolutely No 1 and it will happen immediately, as soon as the vaccines arrive.’’
Border workers are at the top of the New Zealand sequencing and rollout for a mass vaccination plan released in December, although the list is being refined, according to Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield.
But the more contagious strains of Covid spreading through Britain, Europe, the United States and South Africa have prompted calls by National and Act for greater urgency in bolstering the border. Another 18 cases were reported at the border yesterday over two days.
From today, all passengers from the US and Britain will require a preboarding Covid test and will be tested again as soon they arrive.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week announced a faster rollout of its first vaccine, also Pfizer. Approval is likely this month from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and first vaccinations are likely by the end of February.
Mr Hipkins said he assumed Australia’s vaccines would be delivered earlier and he said it was unfair to suggest Australia was moving quicker.
Asked if New Zealand would ask Pfizer for early delivery of 3000 courses for border workers from the first batch of 200,000, he said: ‘‘We are always talking to the pharmaceutical companies. Our people are always leaning on them to get delivery of any of the vaccines as quickly as we can.’’
Dr Bloomfield said Medsafe was working ‘‘in lockstep’’ with the TGA and the group rolling out the vaccine in Australia.
‘‘We are confident that we are still very much in step with them. The way I think about is ‘are we both on the same grid and in the same race?’ and very much so,’’ he said.
The Pfizer application was most advanced but on all four vaccines, there were dedicated teams assessing information as it was made available.
Asked if the Pfizer approval could be sped up in line with Australia’s timeline, he said: ‘‘The timelines are pretty pacey as it is . . . We are confident we are still very much working to a similar timetable as Australia in terms of our process of approving the vaccine and getting it onshore.’’ There was also a lot of effort keeping abreast of emerging information about safety and efficacy of vaccines as they were being deployed elsewhere.
Dr Bloomfield said that as more information arrived, for example of the Pfizer rollout, Medsafe and TGA were sending a single set of questions through rather than different ones.
‘‘Normally that response from the companies takes four months and with the last set of questions we’ve sent back, we have asked for a turnaround of a week.
‘‘That is a tangible example of the pace and approach we are applying to every step in the process so we are in a position to have an approved vaccine, we are really confident around safety, we have the vaccine onshore and we are able to deliver it as soon as is the right time to do that.’’