Kiwis to wait patiently for vaccine turn
Other countries deemed higher priority
Covid-19 vaccinations should be available to the public by the middle of the year, according to Covid-19 Recovery Minister Chris Hipkins. Hipkins told Morning Report 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.
He said early signs from Medsafe showed no issues with the vaccines New Zealand has secured.
The Covid-19 vaccine rollout will be the largest mass immunisation campaign in New Zealand’s history.
The Government has secured various deals for vaccines, including 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, it’s obviously a huge undertaking — we’re talking about vaccinating 5 million people,” Hipkins said.
“That’s never been done in New Zealand before, on the scale and in the timeframe we’re talking about.”
Border workers, health workers and high-risk communities will be top priorities once the vaccine is available.
The National Iwi Chairs Forum has put forward six recommendations for the vaccine rollout and said the Government wasn’t taking account of the risk to kauma¯tua and kuia.
Hipkins denied this and said they were aware there was an increased risk for Ma¯ori and Pacific communities.
“For older New Zealanders there is an increased risk there, too. Many of our kauma¯tua will fall into both of those categories, we’re certainly very aware of that and we’re factoring that in our planning.”
Australia’s vaccine rollout had been pushed forward to next month and there have been recent criticisms that the Government’s plan was too slow.
However, Hipkins said we would be receiving the vaccines in a similar timeframe as 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.” — RNZ