A jab to avoidaninthhospital visit
Jack Gwyn has been in hospital eight times already and would rather like to avoid a ninth.
That is why the Lower Hutt 9-year-old and his younger sister Eliza, 7, were heading off to the Lower Hutt vaccination clinic on Monday lastweek – the first day under-12s could get the Covid-19 vaccine – for their first shot.
Around New Zealand, freshly eligible 5 to 11-year-olds queued outside vaccine clinics to get their first dose after about 120,000 paediatric doses of Pfizer vaccine were delivered to 500 vaccination sites.
It follows Medsafe, the Government’s medicine regulator, approving use of a paediatric form of the vaccine for those aged from 5 to 11 in December.
Jack and Eliza’s mother is Hutt South MP Ginny Andersen and she said Jack was ‘‘very keen’’ to get the vaccine as he was in hospital eight times – each time for about seven days – before he was 2-and-a-half with complications associated with asthma.
‘‘Every time he got a cough or cold he couldn’t breathe so we called an ambulance,’’ Andersen said.
Jack even did some at-home lobbying in an attempt to speed it up: ‘‘ He asked me to ask Jacinda if he could be vaccinated ... we had to wait for Medsafe.’’
On Monday morning last week at Wellington’s Capital Gateway Covid-19 Vaccination Centre, long queues of parents and children waited patiently for their first dose.
Logan Trinh, 9, admitted to being scared as he awaited his jab.
‘‘It is probably going to hurt but I’m happy I’m helping out the community.’’
Ministry of Health National Immunisation Programme group operations manager Rachel Mackay said the number of vaccination clinics for children would increase in coming weeks as health workers returned from summer breaks.
‘‘Another 400,000 paediatric doses remain in the national store, with new supply arriving from Pfizer weekly,’’ Mackay said.
‘‘Deliveries are made on the same weekly schedule as for the adult vaccine so vaccination centres offering child vaccinations can order the stock they need.’’