National demands answers on why no date for vaccine
WELLINGTON: The National Party is demanding answers as to why the Covid19 vaccine has yet to arrive in New Zealand, despite its introduction overseas.
Medsafe yesterday granted provisional approval for Pfizer’s Covid19 vaccine but there is no firm date on when vaccinations will start in New Zealand.
The first vaccines will be given to 225,000 New Zealanders on the front line, including cleaners, bus drivers, port workers, security staff, air crew and their households.
Health officials have also recommended frail and elderly people needing hospitallevel care be included in the priority vaccination group.
The next in the queue will be healthcare and resthome workers.
National Party Covid19 response spokesman Chris Bishop said the Government should be upfront about the delivery timeframes negotiated in its contracts.
He questioned whether it negotiated hard enough or paid enough to ensure timely delivery.
‘‘The Government said we are at the front of the queue.
‘‘We are demonstrably not.
‘‘We still actually don’t have any real idea when the Pfizer vaccine will arrive in the country.
‘‘Over 50 countries around the world are rolling out vaccines and we’ve got to ask ourselves the question why we’re in the situation we’re in.’’
Previously, Covid19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said he would not be providing a specific date until it was certain, for fear of raising hopes only to disappoint later if issues occurred in delivery time or supply.
Mr Bishop said the Government’s latest argument was that other countries needed the vaccine more than New Zealand.
‘‘Taken to its logical conclusion, that would mean no vaccines for New Zealanders for many years to come, which even the Government isn’t proposing.’’
Act New Zealand leader David Seymour also demanded that the Government reveal whether the reason New Zealand still did not have a vaccine was that it negotiated a bad deal.
‘‘One has to wonder if there wasn’t a little bit of haste to get that announcement out before the election and now a massive scramble to explain why the contracts weren’t as watertight as other countries have.’’
He said the public deserved to know whether the contract negotiated allowed New Zealand to be bumped down the queue.
Three new cases of Covid19 were reported in New Zealand’s managed isolation and quarantine facilities yesterday. — RNZ