Doses ordered as roll-out grows
The Covid-19 vaccine programme is set to roll out to a further 1.7 million Kiwis from this month but, at present, there is only enough vaccine in the country for a few hundred thousand people.
New Zealand is now more than two months into the vaccine roll-out, touted by Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall this week as the ‘‘largest medical event ... New Zealand has ever experienced’’. As of this week, 232,588 doses have been administered since February 20 – with just over 60,000 Kiwis now fully vaccinated.
May marks the start of another significant development in the programme, targeting Kiwis at higher risk if they catch Covid-19 – those over 65, with underlying health conditions, and in custody. But Ministry of Health data shows there are not enough vaccines on the ground to service this group.
The Government has purchased 10 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, enough for all New Zealanders.
To date, 685,620 vaccine doses have arrived in New Zealand – enough to vaccinate 342,800 people.
As of Thursday there were 429,180 doses of the two-dose vaccine available for distribution – not including those in transit to district health boards (DHBs), which can vary daily from 3000 to 15,000 doses.
Counting just those on ice, there are enough doses for 214,590 people.
This week, Verrall said it was ‘‘important to remember that we will have enough vaccine for everyone’’.
‘‘To achieve our aim of having everyone vaccinated by the end of the year, we do need New Zealanders to work with us and, in some cases, to be patient,’’ she said.
A ministry spokesperson told Stuff it was ‘‘confident’’ in its vaccine supply, saying deliveries of vaccine were scheduled to continue on a weekly basis, with each batch varying from 49,000 to 78,000 doses.
It is expecting about 1.2 million vaccine doses to have landed by the end of next month, ahead of deliveries ‘‘scaling up at pace’’ for immunising the general population.
Collectively, DHBs were ‘‘on track’’ to deliver more than 1 million doses by the end of next month, the ministry said.
Data released this week showed the Government exceeded its nationwide Covid-19 vaccination target by almost 5000 doses last week, hitting 102 per cent of its planned goal. But some district health boards were lagging well behind, including Northland, which had given 62 per cent of its planned doses by the end of Sunday – 3760 doses fewer than its target.
Whanganui, Nelson Marlborough, Hawke’s Bay, MidCentral and Bay of Plenty DHBs each hit 130 per cent of their targets, raising the national average.
The Government wants to have as many New Zealanders as possible vaccinated by the end of this year and has made repeated assurances the roll-out will soon ‘‘ramp up’’.
At this stage, the focus is on vaccinating the estimated 480,000 people in group 2 – which started in March. This includes highrisk frontline workers, staff and residents at aged care facilities, older Ma¯ ori and Pacific people cared for by wha¯ nau, and those in the Counties Manukau DHB area aged 65 and over or who have an underlying health condition or disability.
Verrall said the Auckland DHBs were ‘‘gearing up’’ to start vaccinating this group from next week.
Ministry data released to Stuff shows 169,036 doses have been given to those in group 2 to date – 36,200 of which were second doses.
In April, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said that after scaling the system up to between 12,000 and 15,000 doses a day it would plateau until July, when the mass-vaccination of the whole population would begin. From July, it would ramp up to 50,000-60,000 doses a day, he said. Special ‘‘super’’ vaccination clinics would also be set up that could vaccinate up to 20,000 people daily, at stadiums and sport grounds.
Group 3 represents the largest chunk of the population in the roll-out to date, though it remains unclear exactly who is included.
Group 3 includes over 75s, those over 65, and people with underlying health conditions, in that order – but guidance on exactly what is considered a relevant health condition is still being finalised. At present, these include coronary heart disease, hypertension, stroke, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/chronic respiratory conditions, kidney disease and cancer.