A team of 10 vaccinators have been administering up to 460 vaccines daily at the Totara St Covid-19 vaccination hub in Taupō. Photo / Laurilee McMichael
A team of 10 vaccinators have been administering up to 460 vaccines daily at the Totara St Covid-19 vaccination hub in Taupō. Photo / Laurilee McMichael
You've seen it in the big cities (Auckland). You've seen it in the small towns (Tūrangi). Now, Taupō is about to enter the immunisation big league, with its first drive-through Covid-19 vaccination clinic this weekend.
The event takes place tomorrow and Saturday September 4 from 9am till 3.30pm in the Taupō Events Centre car park at 26 AC Baths Ave, Taupō. The immunisation hub at Totara St will be closed for these two days.
Lakes District Health Board expects to administer 1200 doses at the drive-through centre each day. The drive-through will be repeated when people return for their second dose.
The drive through vaccination hub is a community partnership and local iwi will have a special code for Māori residents to book. A similar event was held successfully in Tūrangi last week from August 25 to 27, with 919 doses administered over three days.
An additional drive-through vaccination clinic will be held at Hirangi Marae in Tūrangi tomorrow from 10am to 4pm. Appointments must be booked beforehand with Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board by phoning 0800 889 427.
Anyone who has an appointment booked this weekend for the Taupō Totara St vaccination site will be contacted and advised to attend the drive-through vaccination centre instead. It will run from 10am to 3.30pm for booked appointments only and is not a drop-in facility. Road closures will be in place.
As of Thursday, September 2, Lakes DHB had administered 80,000 vaccines across the Lakes region. It was unable to supply numbers for individual sites.
Lakes DHB chief operating officer Alan Wilson says at the Taupō vaccination clinic there have generally been around 360 vaccination slots but this has been pushed up to around 460 vaccination slots available each day since lockdown, with the hub opening Tuesday to Saturday, 8am to 4pm and five administration staff and up to 10 vaccinators on site.
The wait times can vary but have not been longer than 10 minutes. People arriving for their vaccination are asked to come ahead of their scheduled time to allow for the health screening questions to be asked.
Mr Wilson says demand for vaccinations increased before alert level 4 lockdown and significantly afterwards, with 12 to 15 year-olds also attending with their parents once their vaccinations became available.
In addition to the vaccination hubs, Lakes DHB has been working with primary health care providers across the region to set them up as vaccination sites and with iwi providers to set up drive-through clinics. The programme is tracking to have the Taupō district population vaccinated by Christmas time.
A three-day drive-through vaccination clinic in Tūrangi last week also proved successful, with 919 vaccines administered. The drive-through vaccination had areas set up for people to register, to receive their vaccine and then to wait for the required time afterwards in case of an adverse reaction.
A three-day drive-through Covid-19 vaccination clinic in Tūrangi last week proved successful, with 919 doses administered. Photo / Tūwharetoa Health
The drive-through vaccinations were a partnership between local health providers Tūwharetoa Health and Pihanga Health with the support of Lakes DHB and were set up to make it easy for local residents and whanau to receive their vaccinations in Tūrangi instead of having to drive to Taupō. The first day on Wednesday August 25 was a system testing day and 217 vaccines were administered. On Thursday, August 26, 328 vaccines were given and Friday, August 27 was the busiest day with 376 vaccinations.
The drive-through vaccinations followed on from a temporary community vaccination drive in Tūrangi which ran for six weeks from June 21 to July 31, with more than 1400 doses of vaccine administered during this time.
Tūwharetoa Health project manager Anthony Hemopo says the buy in from the community was very positive throughout the three days, and feedback from those who attended was overwhelmingly positive.
"We believe that the key to the successful execution of this kaupapa is the strong provider relationships we have in place, and the strong connection we all have to our community and our whānau," he said.
The drive-through vaccination hub this weekend is being held with the support of Taupō District Council, local civil defence fire, police and St John, Senjo Security, Tūwharetoa Health and Pinnacle Health.
