Tauranga Covid vaccine centre opens

Ngāti Ranginui kaumatua – Tu Pearson, standing, and Des Tata, seated right, officiated the opening of the Covid-19 Vaccination Centre in 1st Avenue with a whakatau. Supplied photo.

A Covid-19 vaccination centre for frontline healthcare workers is open in Tauranga.

The centre, established by the Bay of Plenty District Health Board, is catering to frontline healthcare workers who work in and around the city. It is located in 1st Avenue, near the former Farmers building.

It was opened on Monday.

Healthcare workers who will be vaccinated at the centre include:

-frontline (non-border) healthcare workers potentially exposed to Covid-19 whilst providing care.

-frontline healthcare workers who may expose more vulnerable people to Covid-19.

-frontline healthcare workers who work with at-risk people living in settings with a high risk of transmission or exposure to Covid-19.

An appointment system will be operating, and those being vaccinated will receive a specific date and time for their vaccination.

The announcement is part of the sequenced vaccination rollout, says BOPDHB Covid-19 Incident Controller Trevor Richardson.

'The Government has set out a sequence for the Covid-19 vaccination rollout,” he says.

'This began with Group 1 - our border workers, MIQ workers and their whanau, as these workers are the first line of defence against Covid-19 crossing our borders.

'The vaccination of our frontline health workforce (Group 2) is now also underway and the new centre will play a key role in this part of the vaccination programme.”

The vaccination centre will be open Monday to Saturday from 8am to 8pm until further notice. Further venues and information around vaccination delivery at them will be established as the rollout is continued.

The framework of that rollout is given below.

Group

Population group

Vaccinations Commencement Date

Group 1

Border and MIQ workers and the people they live with

Underway

Group 2

High-risk frontline workers and people living in high-risk places

Underway

Group 3

People who are at risk of getting very sick from COVID-19.

This includes people who are 75 years or older, people who are 65 years to 74 years, then people with comorbidities aged under 65 years and people in custodial settings.

Late May

Group 4

The remainder of the population aged 16 years and older.

Second half of 2021

Communications campaigns will be run to make sure people are aware of the changes to different group levels and the processes around receiving their vaccinations.

"In the meantime, please continue with key health behaviours, using the QR code, washing your hands, staying home if sick, wearing face coverings on public transport, and turning on Bluetooth tracing," asks the BOPDHB.

2 comments

Joke

Posted on 13-04-2021 11:16 | By Slim Shady

So slow. New Zealand is in the 3rd World. The Government hasn’t got a clue what it is doing.


Agree

Posted on 13-04-2021 14:32 | By Yadick

Slim Shady is right when he says the Government hasn't got a clue what it's doing. They can't even get all the MIQ staff vaccinated and because the staff work there they're burying their heads in the sand and not calling the recent outbreak community transmission even though there's a growing list of places of interest. Watch the trans-tasman bubble burst and cost kiwis thousands of dollars because Labor can't organize itself.


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