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Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall says a new shipment of Pfizer vaccine will enable health authorities to maintain a high vaccination rates.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/450949/covid-19-update-pm-says-govt-close-to-securing-additional-vaccine-deals announced the government was negotiating a deal] that would see New Zealand secure additional Pfizer doses.
"As a result of these efforts we are now finalising arrangements that secure additional supply in September this will enable us to maintain our extraordinary vaccination rates throughout September until our bulk deliveries land in October," Ardern said.
"We are still waiting for final contracts to be signed so I cannot confirm specific countries or details on quantities, they are however Pfizer doses and we will share further information as soon as we are able."
Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall told Checkpoint the government had been worried it would have to slow down the vaccine rollout but the delivery gave confidence to health authorities that current vaccination rates can be maintained.
Although the government was not yet able to confirm the delivery date of the order due to contractual requirements, Verrall said the shipment would be arriving on time to ensure continuity of the vaccine rollout.
"We have a short-term issue that we've been working around the clock to try and address and yes the timing is relatively tight," Verrall said.
"This is an issue which has really been prompted by the very high level of vaccination we were able to achieve at Alert Level Four which we weren't achieving prior to this outbreak and being in Alert Level Four," she said.
Although the need for additional vaccine had been exacerbated by the high vaccination rates during lockdown, Verrall said the government already had plans in place to secure another shipment around this time.
"We always had a plan to vaccinate New Zealanders throughout this year and we had a known period where we knew supply would be tight in September.
'"The Auditor-General wrote a report saying we might be unlikely to achieve our targets and yet we've exceeded them considerably sometimes by over 80 percent."
Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Auckland will remain in Alert Level Four lockdown until 14 September at the earliest and Verrall told Checkpoint there would be a lot to consider when government decided whether to extend the lockdown even further.
"There's a lot of things we take into account the alert levels... certainly case numbers but as case numbers get low small events make a big differences to the numbers so they do bounce around a bit.
"I think we can all agree that this week in Auckland is a lot better than last week and the week before in Auckland in terms of the outbreak's control."
She noted the majority of Auckland's cases over the last week have been linked to existing cases and those mystery cases are decreasing as the public health unit investigates.
As the government considers alert level changes, there will be a particular focus on recent unlinked cases as they pose a greater risks than those who might've been exposed before the city moved to Alert Level Four, Verrall said.
Meanwhile, increasing testing will also be an important factor in determining whether the city is ready to move down the alert levels, she said.
"I think we really do need to drive up that testing because that's what gives you the assurance that you've detected the cases that are out there.
"We have looked at the community testing sites that we currently have, we are looking at them in light of where we are concerned there might be a risk of transmission so we're looking at a sort of geographic level at the distribution of those."
Verrall said it will be vital that testing rates increase for critical populations such as essential workers crossing the Auckland border, health workers and MIQ staff.
"Those are the people moving around the community at the moment and in doing so we may well assure ourselves that we've lowered the risk of unidentified cases."
Verrall was unable to give an update on whether the Crowne Plaza MIQ facility - the possible source of the current outbreak - has re-opened.
"There has been an investigation into the Crowne Plaza that's been very thorough and what's more is that historically it has performed very well throughout the time that it has been used with the the one exception that we are concerned about that might have led to this outbreak," she said.