Opinion: Vaccination effort ramping up

Our COVID-19 vaccination effort is continuing to ramp up, with over 1.9 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine administered so far.

At the weekend we held our first mass vaccination event in South Auckland, with 15,500 vaccinated. My thanks to our DHB and PHO teams who have administered over 73,000 vaccines in our region.

In the past week alone there have were more than 204,000 vaccine doses administered. On average, that works out to be more than 1,200 vaccines an hour (1219.8988 to be exact!), 20 a minute, or one vaccine every few seconds.

Things are really picking up pace, and we’ll keep ramping our vaccine rollout up, with the news that we’ve received 1 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine in shipments in July– with 1.5 million due this month.

We don’t need to look far to see why getting vaccinated is important. With the Delta variant spreading around the world, we know that the best line of defence against COVID-19 is the vaccine.

I’m particularly pleased with how the vaccine rollout is going in Nelson, with the Nelson Marlbourgh DHB having vaccinated 73705 people (to 25 July) that’s well ahead of their target of 50429.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has also announced that we've entered the next phase in our vaccine roll out. New Zealand's general population can begin to book in for their vaccine in age bands, with over-60s eligible first.

Bookings for the rest of the country will open soon, from oldest to youngest. You can book at bookmyvaccine.covid19.health.nzor by phoning 0800 28 29 26.

Our vaccination programme is a key part of our plan to secure New Zealand's recovery, and continue keeping people safe from COVID-19.  

This week I’m back at Parliament in Wellington, where our team are working hard to continue protecting New Zealanders from COVID-19, while tackling some of our long-term challenges, like Housing and Child Poverty.