LIVE: Vaccine rollout ahead of targets - Verrall

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield

Associate Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall and Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield are providing an update on the vaccination programme.

Verrall says the vaccination plan was on track.

She says 668,115 total vaccine doses had been administered by midnight last night - with more than 104,000 doses administered in the past week and more than 19,000 yesterday.

Verrall says it's the biggest week of vaccinations so far.

"Friday was our biggest day of vaccinations to date, with 20,015 vaccine doses administered. Within that, more than 235,600 people have received their second dose."

Overall, New Zealand is nine per cent ahead of its vaccination plan, she says.

A further delivery of the Pfizer vaccine yesterday meant the country had received 971,100 doses, enough to fully vaccinate more than 485,500 people, she says.

She says Northland, which has struggled to meet targets early in the rollout, had broken even with its targets.

South Canterbury DHB had continued to offer the vaccine in Timaru despite the flooding, she says.

Bloomfield says it's encouraging to see the rollout go ahead of schedule.

In Victoria, officials are strongly considering extending the seven-day lockdown due to end at 11.59 on Thursday amid growing fears about rapid transmission in settings never seen before.

New Zealand's quarantine-free travel with the Australian state has been suspended since the outbreak of community cases there, but that is due to end on Friday.

New Zealand's Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins previously said that would be kept under review as the situation developed.

-RNZ

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