Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Health Ministry briefing on vaccines, pandemic response and hospitalisations

Ministry of Health officials and public health experts will be hosting a briefing this morning on how high vaccination rates affect the response to Covid-19.

The briefing, hosted by director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, will also cover how those vaccination levels impact hospitalisation rates.

Bloomfield will be joined at 10.30am by Immunisation Advisory Centre director Professor Nikki Turner and the ministry's Tamati Shepherd-Wipiiti.

As of Monday, 81.1 per cent of the eligible population - aged over 11 - have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

The Pfizer vaccine reduces the chance of catching Covid-19, and dramatically reduces the risk of severe illness.

The Government has linked high vaccination coverage with enabling the country to move away from using lockdowns to combat Covid-19.

On November 29 the Government will decide whether to move Auckland first, and later the rest of the country, to the new Covid-19 Protection Framework, or traffic light system.

This will mean no more lockdowns as they have been known, but people will be required to be vaccinated to access certain locations, generally those deemed as high risk.

From today mandates kick in for teachers and many health workers, requiring them to have had at least one dose, and both doses by January 1.

This morning Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall announced people who have had two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine will only need to isolate for 10 days rather than two weeks if they test positive for the virus.

Those who are unvaccinated still need to isolate for 14 days.