Cautious optimism NZ will have Covid vaccines by March

WELLINGTON: Covid19 vaccinations should be available to the public by the middle of the year, Covid19 Recovery Minister Chris Hipkins says.

It was hoped the first batches of vaccines would arrive by March, but countries being ravaged by the virus would be prioritised by the manufacturers, Mr Hipkins told RNZ yesterday.

Across the Tasman, Australia’s chief medical officer said it was unlikely international borders would substantially reopen this year, even if most people were vaccinated against coronavirus.

Prof Brendan Murphy downplayed the prospect of a widespread easing of Australian border restrictions.

‘‘The answer is probably no,’’ Prof Murphy told the ABC yesterday.

‘‘Even if we have a lot of the population vaccinated, we don’t know whether that will prevent transmission of the virus.’’

The Covid19 vaccine campaign will be the largest mass immunisation in New Zealand’s history.

The Government has secured various deals for vaccines, including for 7.6 million doses from AstraZeneca — enough for 3.8 million people, 10.72 million doses from Novavax — enough for 5.36 million people, 750,000 courses from Pfizer/BioNTech, and 5 million from Janssen.

‘‘We’re expecting the vaccination campaign overall to take most of the year,’’ Mr Hipkins said yesterday.

‘‘It’s obviously a huge undertaking. We’re talking about vaccinating 5 million people,’’ he said.

‘‘That’s never been done in New Zealand before, in the scale and in the timeframe we’re talking about.’’

Border workers, health workers and highrisk communities will be top priorities once the vaccine is available.

‘‘We’re also expecting there will be some population groups that will be harder to reach than others, and so we’ve got plans in place and we’re putting plans in place to make sure we reach them,’’ he said.

Australia’s vaccine rollout had been brought forward to February and there had been criticisms that the Government’s plan was too slow.

However, Mr Hipkins said New Zealand would be receiving the vaccines in a similar timeframe to Australia.

‘‘They’re a little more optimistic on when they think the vaccines will arrive than we are. I’m being cautious and saying we know they’ll be here by the end of March.’’ He said he was optimistic that there would be public availability by the middle of the year, but it depended on when supplies arrived in New Zealand.

Mr Hipkins said a twoway Cook Islands travel bubble was looking promising.

People from the Cook Islands will be allowed to enter New Zealand without quarantine from Thursday but, as yet, New Zealanders cannot go the other way.

He said some finalising details were needed. —