Northern Advocate
  • Northern Advocate home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei
  • Kaipara
  • Mangawhai
  • Dargaville

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northern Advocate

Covid 19 coronavirus: Update on vaccines from director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield

Michael  Neilson
Michael Neilson
Senior political reporter, NZ Herald·NZ Herald·
16 Jun, 2021 01:40 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article
Dr Ashley Bloomfield says 891,702 vaccine doses had been administered and yesterday more than 21,000 doses had been administered

There are two new cases of Covid-19 in recent returnees in managed isolation facilities today and no cases in the community.

Two patients in Middlemore Hospital remain in a stable condition, the Ministry of Health said in today's update.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield, director-general of health, says 891,702 vaccine doses had been administered and yesterday more than 21,000 doses had been administered.

The country remains over 7 per cent ahead of the rollout plan.

Based on data, the Auckland region is running behind rollout schedule, but the region has delivered over a third of the entire country's doses.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

No DHBs had stopped their rollouts due to low supplies, Bloomfield said. They were working with the Ministry to ensure they could continue to vaccinate as per their schedules.

The rollout could slow down, and some centres may have to pause, but they were balancing their rollout based on supply, Bloomfield said.

For group 1, 54,000 had first dose and 48,000 second dose.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In group 2, 332,000 had first dose and 230,000 second. In group 3, 145,000 had first does and 34,000 second and in group 4 35,000 had first dose and 4500 second.

Bloomfield said he was pleased at how the vaccine had got to people.

As the vaccine can be stored at 2C-8C, there was no need now to call people in to use up vaccines.

Now was a good time for people to update contact details with a GP ahead of the general rollout, Bloomfield said.

The latest data around willingness showed 80 per cent over 16 years were likely to get a vaccine or had been vaccinated, up from 69 per cent in March. For Māori it was up to 75 per cent and Pasifika 78 per cent.

It was fantastic to see this high level of willigness, Bloomfield said.

Around 12 per cent remained unwilling and 8 per cent unsure, which remained the challenge, Bloomfield said.

There was no intention to make people take the vaccine, it was not mandatory, but they expected to see growing acceptance as the rollout expanded and it became the social norm.

On vaccination rates, the higher the proportion of people who were vaccinated, up around 90-95 per cent, meant there would be less hospitalisations and less deaths in case of community transmission. That meant if 20 per cent of the population did not get vaccinated, as per the hesitancy, other measures such as scanning and masks could need to continue.

On the Victoria situation, there were five cases reported overnight and all of these were linked to existing outbreaks, an ongoing "trickle of cases" coming through.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

There will be an update this afternoon on the quarantine-free travel pause with Victoria, Bloomfield said.

Global Covid-19 cases were declining, about half of the peak in April of over 800,000 cases, Bloomfield said.

However there could be unreported cases in places, international authorities warned.

The United Kingdom, despite their successful vaccination programme, was starting to see an upswing in cases and most cases were the Delta variant.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern would have more to say on the rollout, particularly around group 4 - the general population - rollout tomorrow.

Questions have been raised in recent weeks around New Zealand's vaccine stocks and the speed through which priority groups have been vaccinated.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In the week ending June 6, New Zealand had 189,660 doses of vaccine available for distribution, down from 288,000 the previous week and 327,240 the week before that.

Recently about 50,000 to 60,000 vaccine doses have been arriving weekly, though the Government won't say how many weekly doses are expected, citing commercial sensitivity.

Last week the Government announced an estimated 1 million doses of vaccine would arrive in New Zealand next month, taking overall doses within the country to over 2 million.

Four new community vaccination centres are also due to open in Albany, Tamaki, Pukekohe and Takanini by the end of June.

More than 110,000 people aged 65+ in the Auckland region will have received an invitation by text or email by Friday, health officials announced today.

The invitations will be issued automatically via text message or email, so people will not need to do anything until they receive their invitation.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

All remaining Group 3 invitations, including the 164,000 Aucklanders who have underlying health conditions, will be sent by mid-July.

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Northern Advocate

Northern Advocate

'They've failed miserably': Northland patients furious over hacked medical portal

09 Jan 03:00 AM
Northern Advocate

‘What the?’ Fisherman’s 96kg marlin turns heads on drive home

09 Jan 01:44 AM
Northern Advocate

Six ways to keep the holiday vibe going in Northland this January

09 Jan 12:00 AM

Sponsored

The Bay’s secret advantage

07 Dec 09:54 PM
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northern Advocate

'They've failed miserably': Northland patients furious over hacked medical portal
Northern Advocate

'They've failed miserably': Northland patients furious over hacked medical portal

Manage My Health yesterday began emailing 50% of affected patients.

09 Jan 03:00 AM
‘What the?’ Fisherman’s 96kg marlin turns heads on drive home
Northern Advocate

‘What the?’ Fisherman’s 96kg marlin turns heads on drive home

09 Jan 01:44 AM
Six ways to keep the holiday vibe going in Northland this January
Northern Advocate

Six ways to keep the holiday vibe going in Northland this January

09 Jan 12:00 AM


The Bay’s secret advantage
Sponsored

The Bay’s secret advantage

07 Dec 09:54 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northern Advocate e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Northern Advocate
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northern Advocate
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2026 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP