Very fewNorthland sites offering jabs to children
Fewer than half of the country’s Covid-19 vaccination sites are administering the vaccine to 5 to 11-year-olds at present.
New Zealand’s paediatric vaccine roll-out began onMonday last week. In just three days, more than 8 per cent of the 476,000 eligible 5 to 11-year-olds have received their first dose of the vaccine (39,289 children).
However, there have been reports that some parents have struggled to find vaccination sites administering the vaccine to tamariki.
‘‘More than 500’’ of the country’s roughly 1165 vaccine sites are offering the vaccine, and the Ministry of Health says more would be coming online soon.
The Northland DHB has the country’s lowest vaccination rates, and is yet to hit 90 per cent for first doses.
As of Tuesday last week, just four of 28 vaccination sites Stuff spoke to in the region were administering the Pfizer vaccine to 5-11-year-olds.
Some of those contacted said they would be but had either not received the vaccine or ‘‘permission’’ to do so yet.
Two sites offering vaccination would not comment, and two could not be reached.
All vaccinators must complete online training specific for 5 to 11s prior to administering the vaccine. This takes 1 1⁄2 to 2 hours, depending on their experience with this age group.
Further training is required as the paediatric vaccine is different to the vaccine for those aged 12-plus in volume and composition.
The Immunisation Advisory Centre, which provides training for the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, said more than 5500 people have done the 5 to 11s training so far.
Just over 15,500 people have completed Covid-19 training, but not all of these people will be able to/allowed to vaccinate the 5 to 11 age group, so this figure was just a guide.
Of 380 general practices and pharmacies providing Covid-19 vaccination across Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland), 270 (71 per cent) are administering paediatric vaccines.
College of GPs medical director Dr Bryan Betty said this level of coverage was ‘‘totally expected’’ at this stage, just a few days into the roll-out, after vaccinators ‘‘wound down’’ over Christmas and New Year.
Betty believed these were mainly general practice and vaccination centres, given GP clinics are familiar with giving vaccines to children, while pharmacies may be yet to do the training.
He said there was ‘‘good spread’’ of sites able to vaccinate children at this stage, but that there had been anecdotal evidence of some pressures, and recommended people book.
Betty anticipated this would ‘‘increase quite dramatically’’ in the coming weeks.
Pharmacy Guild chief executive Andrew Gaudin said it did not have an overview of the national situation, but had not been advised of any training or administrative issues associated with the paediatric vaccine roll-out.
Gaudin said the guild was confident the number of pharmacies giving the 5 to 11s vaccine would ‘‘continue to grow in the coming days’’.
The best way for whānau to see where to get their children vaccinated is by using Book My Vaccine.
Rachel Mackay, the National Immunisation Programme operations group manager, said the roll-out started ‘‘well’’, and officials expected the number of vaccination sites ready to administer the 5-11 vaccine to increase ‘‘significantly’’ over the next few weeks.
Though it was not yet reporting this information, the ministry was ‘‘closely’’ monitoring 5-11 vaccine uptake by location and ethnicity, and ‘‘continue to be guided’’ by Māori specialists, including iwi and the New Zealand Māori Council as the programme progresses.