August 18 2021
There are now seven Covid-19 cases in the community, with two additional cases to report from the five announced this morning. The outbreak is the Delta strain of the virus and it came from NSW, Australia.
The country's Covid-19 vaccination programme will be back up and running tomorrow after a 48-hour pause as New Zealand entered level 4 lockdown.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the temporary pause in vaccinations at the same time she announced the lockdown last night, saying it was to reduce the risk of the virus spreading.
Last night, she said it was important to protect the safety of both those coming in for vaccines and those administering them. The pause gave officials time to further consider potential changes, she said.
She said all district health boards had a plan in place in case of a return to level 4 lockdown but needed time to implement it.
Today Ardern announced a limited number of sites would reopen this afternoon and all would open again by 8am tomorrow. However, the capacity of some would be reduced by level 4 restrictions.
Some bookings would have to be cancelled to make sure those people getting their jab were able to maintain social distancing, she said.
People whose bookings were affected would be notified and everyone else was urged to turn up as planned.
Ardern also opened up bookings to the next group today, meaning anyone aged 40 or over could now book in to receive their vaccinations.
The lowering of the age limit appeared to prompt a flurry of new bookings and a number of people reported problems getting a slot.
The Herald received reports from a number of readers who received a message saying: "We are unable to complete your booking at this time. Sorry for the inconvenience, please try again shortly."
Most were able to secure a spot after several attempts.
The Herald has approached the Ministry of Health for comment.
Ardern yesterday said she was hopeful the latest outbreak would help drive vaccination coverage in the longer term.
"I think from what we've seen in Australia, it has caused a bit of an uptick in take-up. We want to use the opportunity, if we can, to safely vaccinate people in the interim."
She said it would only be a matter of days until vaccinations were available to all age groups which could be particularly important given six of the seven identified community transmission cases were under 30 years old.
She said young adults had been identified as a "pivot point" for transition in the Australian outbreaks.
Yesterday a record 55,688 doses were administered including 35,499 first doses and 20,189 second doses.
By 11.59pm yesterday more than 2.61 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine had been administered in New Zealand.
