As of July 22, about 40 per cent of frontline workers at Napier Port have yet to receive either of their Covid-19 vaccine. Photo / Bill Trewheellar
As of July 22, about 40 per cent of frontline workers at Napier Port have yet to receive either of their Covid-19 vaccine. Photo / Bill Trewheellar
New data from the Ministry of Health shows 40 per cent of Napier Port workers have yet to receive either of their Covid-19 vaccines, but the port still insists uptake has been "very high".
The data found that 82 of 210 active private sector frontline port workers were yet tobe vaccinated against Covid-19 as at July 22, according to information from the Ministry of Health.
One-hundred-and-twenty workers have received both doses, while eight had only received their first.
A Napier Port spokeswoman said she knew vaccination rates of frontline workers were much higher than the 40 per cent unvaccinated referenced.
"That's a continuation on from our testing regime, which was fully compliant so we already had some good processes in place to facilitate uptake."
A Napier Port spokesperson said uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine had been "very high". Photo / NZME
She said all Napier Port employees who are frontline border workers (Tier 1A) were fully vaccinated, and "over and above that", many of its non-frontline employees were also vaccinated.
"Other companies work on the port, and together with the DHB, we have also been helping them to encourage vaccination among their employees in the same way we have ours.
"We know face to face conversations with health experts has been effective in people choosing to become vaccinated and having a venue on port makes it easier for workers to get vaccinated."
She said while vaccinations had been made available to port workers since March, a government order making it compulsory for them to do so was only introduced on July 14 and gave frontline border workers until September 30 to get their first doses.
The border worker testing register also came into effect last month, giving employers more visibility to vaccination status of employees and use of the register data which had previously been held by the Ministry of Health for confidentiality, she said.
The spokeswoman pointed to the fact that frontline employees were still tested every one to two weeks and continued to take "every precaution" around ships.
A spokesperson for Hawke's Bay District Health Board referred Hawke's Bay Today questions about the data to the Ministry of Health which did not respond in time for deadline.
Epidemiologist and Professor of Public Health at University of Otago Michael Baker said port borders were a vulnerability which had been overlooked. Photo / NZME
Epidemiologist and Professor of Public Health at University of Otago Michael Baker said vaccines were available to port and border workers "very early on".
Asked if he thought Napier Port's level or vaccine uptake was good enough, he said, "it clearly isn't".
"If someone says [vaccine uptake is] very high, that's basically 100 per cent. I'd expect it almost to be complete."
Baker felt less scrutiny had been paid to ports, compared to staff at airports, owing to the number of different operators around the country and a diverse workforce.
While flights coming into the country, and the risk of covid-19 transmission associated with the industry, had decreased, port operations were as busier as before the pandemic, he said.
A "key line of defence" was having vaccinated port workers who had access to PPE gear and observed physical distancing, he said.
"This is an area of vulnerability that needs to be looked at."
To port workers yet to be vaccinated, the message was clear.
"This is to protect you, your families and the country," he said.
"It just takes one mistake."
Of 110 Covid-19 tests taken from Tauranga port workers linked to the Rio De La Plata container ship, which had 11 infected crew, 109 have returned negative results. One is being retested as the result was inconclusive but is considered low risk.
The Singaporean-flagged ship had been scheduled to arrive in Napier Port later this week, though a new arrival date has yet to be set.
