High Covid-19 vaccine uptake for border workers, Northport says

Northport Ltd "delighted" with uptake of vaccines amongst employees. Photo / Supplied

The Government's deadline to get border workers vaccinated against Covid-19 is drawing close and Northport says it is happy with the uptake of vaccines among staff.

Employees of Northport Ltd as well as eight companies and three government agencies fall under legislation signed by Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins in July that makes the Covid-19 vaccine mandatory for border workers.

Front-line workers employed by the Government must have had their first dose by August 26. Privately employed staff must have had their first jab by September 30.

Spokesman for Northport Ltd Peter Heath said 90 per cent of their employees had been vaccinated.

That included staff who are not required to get a jab under the legislation. Only workers boarding ships, handling affected items or who are in contact with on-board crew will need to be immunised.

Heath said the goal was to get everyone vaccinated: "We offer staff every encouragement. For us, it has proved successful."

Beyond Northport Ltd, eight companies and three government agencies at the port employ around 320 people between them.

"While Northport can't speak for these independent organisations it does, of course, have a reasonable idea of the numbers," Heath said.

Organisations employing front-line staff have to report to the Ministry of Health under the Border Workforce Testing Register.

"The Ministry of Health's Border Worker Testing Register is the only official and accurate source of information about the rate of vaccination take-up within these independent organisations," Heath said.

"However, our informal enquiries lead us to believe that the combined vaccination rate among these organisations' border-facing staff is in the region of 75 per cent."

The Ministry of Primary Industry says front-line workers interacting with international vessels at Northport are fully vaccinated.

"The health and safety of our people is central to how we operate," said Andrew McConnell, MPI's deputy director general in charge of MPI's Covid response.

"Unvaccinated officers will not be deployed to front-line operations. Any front-line staff who were unable to be vaccinated for a variety of reasons were redeployed to alternative duties away from the front line."

Northland DHB operates a vaccination facility at Marsden Point.

A spokesperson for North Tugz, the company that operates the tugs that help ships in and out of Refining NZ and Northport, said all of its pilots have started or completed the vaccination process.

"We have an extremely high vaccination take-up among the entire North Tugz team - even among those who are not border-facing staff and who are therefore not covered by the Covid-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Amendment Order 2021.

"With the help and support of the Ministry of Health and the Northland DHB we continue to work with the few border-facing staff who have not yet been vaccinated to encourage, support and enable them to do so by the September 30 deadline."