False start but ‘Olympic jab-athon’ gathers pace
It may have been a false start for the “Olympics of vaccination” in South Auckland yesterday, but it appears the country’s first mass vaccination effort is back on track.
People booked for a jab were soon waiting more than an hour at the Manukau Institute of Technology building where people were registered and then bussed to the Vodafone Events Centre.
The Northern Region Health Coordination Centre said the increased demand was caused by people arriving early for their appointments. More administrative staff were quickly brought in to reduce queues.
It is hoped more than 16,500 people will be vaccinated across the three-day vaccination event — about 3500 of them MIT staff and students.
Before its opening yesterday, acting Covid-19 response minister Dr Ayesha Verrall dubbed the event the “Olympics of vaccination”, and was confident health staff would bring home a gold.
Mass vaccination lead Alex Pimm said there were no queues as at 3pm. More than 4000 vaccines had been administered by the 12 vaccinators on site so far, which put them on track to achieve 5000 for the day.
Rob, who asked to keep his last name private, said he was slightly lost when he arrived at the MIT site at 8.45am because of a lack of signage. He hoped good traffic plans would be in place over the weekend as the hassle to find the right building tempted him to give up and leave.
“I think they were just a little bit disjointed there,” he said.
However the friendly staff made the process very smooth in the end, he said.
The Harper family were also very complimentary of the staff at the vaccination centre as they got their jab. Tracey Harper, who works at MIT, hoped to reassure others who were nervous about getting the jab.
“It’s like getting a vaccine for measles or anything, there’s no reason to be scared.”
Pimm said additional admin staff would be sent to the MIT site over the weekend to cope with demand. He assured people they did not need to arrive early.
“It’s great to have some feedback from people who have been through and we’ll be looking at that this evening to see if we make any changes,” he said last night
He was “incredibly pleased” to hear Rob’s account of his staff, which he said was similar to the reports he had heard from others.
Pimm was confident in the traffic-management plans over the weekend, but encouraged people to use the free shuttle to the MIT site or to carpool.
Two new Covid cases in managed isolation were announced yesterday, with a historical case also being investigated to check against transmission in MIQ.