A health expert says offering a second vaccine booster to vulnerable groups is the right thing to do, but more work is needed to gain an adequate uptake of the first booster.
Sir Collin Tukuitonga says the government's move is the right thing to do. Photo: RYAN ANDERSON/STUFF
The government has revealed the groups that could be eligible for a further Covid-19 booster.
It's planning a law change that will allow those people to get the dose six months after their first booster without a prescription in July.
The bill will be rushed through Parliament and once it has passed, the Director-General of Health will confirm which groups are eligible.
The government is proposing people aged 65 and over, Māori and Pacific people aged 50 and over, aged care residents and severely immunocompromised people be eligible.
That will amount to about 850,000 people.
Sir Collin Tukuitonga, Auckland University associate professor of public health and the associate dean of the Pacific programme at the medical school, said offering a second booster was the correct move, but there were concerns about gaps in the vaccination programme to date.
"We do need to put an extra effort into encouraging uptake of the first booster." - Sir Collin Tukuitonga, Auckland University associate professor of public health
"The immediate issue for us is that we still have not very adequate uptake of the first booster and in order to get the second booster you need to have had the first one," he told Morning Report.
The advice from the experts was the Covid-19 vaccinations should be six months apart.
"I accept that some of these vulnerable people would have had their first dose a while back," Sir Collin said. "So that is an issue. No doubt the ministry and the officials, general practice communities will work through this because it is an important point, given the fact that we're coming into winter and people are concerned about flu and so on."
The move by government reflected that lessons had been learned from the initial drive to get Māori and Pasifika communities vaccinated, Sir Collin said.
There was a recognition that those communities faced greater underlying health problems.
"You may recall our colleagues, the Māori doctors working on Covid in fact recommended that the first and second dose, booster and so on, should have been offered to Māori at 50 for the reasons the officials have clearly looked at and introduced the lower age threshold for Māori and Pasifika, absolutely we should have done this from day one."
The community infrastructure within Māori and Pasifika communities used to vaccinate people was still operational and could be used again to drive the latest booster campaign. But Sir Collin said emphasis must also be put on first booster uptake too.
"We do need to put an extra effort into encouraging uptake of the first booster. I note that the Pacific providers, community leaders, Māori leaders, did a fantastic job with drive-ins and led by communities which led to, particularly in the case of the Pacific community, very good rates of first and second doses. I think we need to support those resources."