The National Party will vote in favour of a bill that makes it easier for people to change their gender on a birth certificate. Video / Mark Mitchell
National leader Judith Collins said the Government's decision to aim low when it comes to vaccination targets has left the country vulnerable to a Covid outbreak and further lockdowns.
She also said the South Island should be moved out of alert level 4 after the initial three-day lockdown if no spread was discovered there.
Auckland's DHBs are at 100 per cent of their vaccination target, as of the most recent data, but that equates to just 813,160 jabs.
Collins said New Zealand had to be realistic about the targets and compare them with the rest of the world.
"Let's not kid ourselves, we're 120th in the world.
"Clearly their targets are extremely low compared to what people will be expecting. If you set yourself a very low target, chances are you might just reach it," Collins said.
Collins said that it was clear the Government had "wasted a lot of time" when it came to ordering the vaccine, which was potentially a cause of the slow rollout.
The Government only began to raise purchase orders for the vaccine on January 29, when it bought 54,600 doses.
"Why did it take so long for the Government to order the vaccines?" Collins said.
She said the fact that other countries were now gearing up to give people a third jab showed up New Zealand's "extremely slow" rollout.
Israel, which led a very fast Pfizer-based vaccine rollout, is now giving some people a booster jab.
This was after having noticed that some of the people who were vaccinated early in the rollout were showing weaker immunity.
Multiple US media outlets are reporting that the US Government is expected to recommend that most Americans get a booster shot eight months after their second dose.
"The Government has missed an absolute trick here by not requiring or allowing GPs and pharmacists to just do the vaccinations like we do with almost every other vaccination," Collins said.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Tuesday the vaccination rollout would be paused for 48 hours while vaccination centres check protocols for continuing the rollout under level 4 conditions.
Collins said the Government should already have a plan for this.
"I think we should know that shouldn't we?" Collins said.
The entire country is in an alert level 4 lockdown for the next three days. Auckland and the Coromandel are likely to be in lockdown for at least a full week.
Collins backed this move, but said that if there was no evidence the vaccine had spread outside of Auckland and the Coromandel, the Government should bring the South Island out of alert level 4. So far, new cases connected to the cluster have not spread outside these areas.
"You'd have to shift the South Island if there's no infections down there," Collins said.
But she warned the difficulty would be getting the best information about the extent of community spread.
"The issue is going to be quite what we don't know at the moment.
"There are queues at testing stations. We'll find out what those results are. If we get away with five cases in the community, I think we will be extraordinarily lucky," Collins said.
"You just don't know - that's the problem. You don't know what you don't know on this stuff because we're so unvaccinated and we become extremely vulnerable," Collins said.
