The Te Moana a Toi (Bay of Plenty) vaccination programme is underway today with 28 workers at the Port of Tauranga receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Preparations have included site visits to Port of Auckland to discuss learnings taken from its rollout; testing processes including patient walk-throughs and dry runs of other systems.

Q&A sessions with a panel of clinicians were held last week for all port workers and their whānau to answer any questions or address any concerns.

BOPDHB Covid-19 response manager Helen De Vere says the first day went well.

'It has been a very positive first day, with everyone involved appreciating how significant this effort is in keeping our community safe.”

She says huge efforts have been put in by the Port of Tauranga and associated Port companies in organising to get vaccinations underway.

"I would just like to say how immensely proud I am of everyone involved and to be a part of this team. It has been a huge logistical effort involving a lot of people going above and beyond to get us to where we are now.

"I want to thank everyone for meeting this challenge head on. Doing so, helped ensure we were in a great position to start the vaccination programme at 11am today."

Covid-19 vaccinations are being made available to our border and MIQ workers as a means of added protection against the risk they encounter as part of their workplace duties.

Vaccination is strongly encouraged to protect them and the people they live with.

"The broader picture of all of this of course is that we're doing the very best we can to protect our communities from the threat of Covid-19," says Helen.

The Covid-19 vaccination rollout programme is organised according to a priority system that will eventually progress from frontline/most at risk to vulnerable populations and ultimately the wider community around June/July this year.

BOPDHB have organised an online webinar for this Friday at 6pm, to provide an opportunity for whānau of Port workers and anyone else seeking guidance, to be able to put their questions to the country's lead vaccination experts, Dr Rawiri Jansen and Dr Nikki Turner.

The vaccination teams will be onsite 11am-4pm Monday to Friday.