Northland District Health Board is reassuring parents they will not miss out on free meningococcal vaccinations for their children if they are eligible.
The queue outside the vax clinic at Whangarei Girls High Photo: RNZ / Lois Williams
Hundreds of people queued yesterday as community clinics opened to immunise young children and teenagers against the new meningococcal W strain.
Some feared they would miss out.
But service manager Cath Bowmar said there was plenty of vaccines to go around for the target age groups.
Ms Bowmar said GPs had difficulty sourcing stocks of the vaccine, but that was not the case for the DHB.
Northland GPs said they had waiting lists of people willing to pay to vaccinate five to 12-year-old children who were not eligible for free shots.
But most could not get a hold of any vaccine, and said it could be January before they got supplies.