LIVE: Everyone can be a vaccine influencer- Ardern

Monday post-cabinet meetings are becoming a weekly thing at the moment.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield have once again spoken about the importance of vaccines for New Zealand.

The pair spoke about the importance of high vaccination rates to New Zealand in terms of opening our borders and reducing restrictions.

Dr Bloomfield says the higher vaccinations numbers are the lower deaths and hospitalisations will be.

He says the delta variant increase the mortality rate as age increases.

It poses nearly double the risk of the alpha variant, based on data from the United Kingdom, says Dr Bloomfield.

'It's mission critical to achieve good vaccination rates. We've made a good start but we need to see it through,” he says.

Ardern says of those 65 and older more than 90 per cent of them have had their first dose.

We need to keep going to help reduce restrictions and to change our border settings safely, she says.

People who are vaccine hesitant are likely to listen to family so she encourages those who have had the vaccine to talk to family about why they got vaccinated.

'Everyone can be a vaccine influencer,” she says.

Ardern says Cabinet has made further decisions on what will be a staged approach to ease border settings, including the self isolation trial which will be an alternative to MIQ.

The pilot will involve 150 people with a focus on businesses and employees who are travelling internationally for work purposes.

It will also include a small number of government officials but will mainly focus on the private sector.

Participants are required to be a New Zealand citizen or holders of a resident visa with a right to re-enter New Zealand, be fully-vaccinated in New Zealand with the Pfizer vaccine, and not travel to or through very high-risk countries.

Those applying will need to arrive in New Zealand between October 30 and 8 December 8, with final travellers leaving isolation by 22 December, she says.

It will be combined with a monitoring and testing regime, Ardern says.

"It is not our intention that self isolation be only available to business travellers in the future. This narrow scope now, though, is for us to kick off safely while we begin the design work."

Expressions of interest open on Thursday and will remain open until 9 October, she says.

Minister Chris Hipkins will give more details about the pilot programme later in the week.

Ardern has also announced quarantine-free travel can begin for RSE workers from 4 October for Vanuatu and 12 October for Samoa and Tonga. They must have at least one vaccination and have their doses completed in New Zealand if they have not already done so.

They must remain in isolation on site at their workplaces until day five, and will be tested on day zero and day five.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says as announced earlier there were 12 new cases of Covid-19 in the community today, all in Auckland.

He says the seven-day rolling average of cases has dropping to 15 this week, compared with 17 last week and 19 the week before.

"We are making progress. Many of our clusters are now considered to be contained ... or clusters are dormant, that is they have not given rise to any new cases in the last 14 days."

Bloomfield says there are now just four active sub clusters.

Ardern says about 43 percent of the eligible population is now fully vaccinated.

EARLIER: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is expected to address New Zealand following cabinet meetings earlier this afternoon.

Today's update comes as the MInistry of Health announces 12 new cases.

All in the Auckland area.

To date, Auckland, including four cases in the Upper Hauraki, has recorded 1160 cases. Of those cases, 948 have recovered.

A total of 17 cases are from the Wellington area.

Ardern says about 43 percent of the eligible population is now fully vaccinated.

The Ministry says the total number of Covid cases in the current outbreak is now 1177.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Covid-19 Response Chris Hipkins says New Zealanders are continuing to step up and get vaccinated.

As of midnight Saturday, 5,020,900 doses of the Pfizer vaccine had been administered in New Zealand, 3,231,444 first doses and 1,789,456 second doses.

'The number of vaccines being given surged to more than 90,000 a day in late August and we are now steadily delivering around 50,000 doses every day. I want to thank people all over Aotearoa who have rolled up their sleeves to protect themselves, their whānau and their community,” says Hipkins.

'Three months ago, we gave our 1 millionth dose and a month ago, we administered our 3 millionth dose. In the past 31 days, we've given out a further 2 million doses. On top of that, the National Immunisation Booking System has nearly 1.3 million future bookings at nearly 680 active vaccination sites around New Zealand.

'Our vaccination workforce is embracing innovative ways to ensure it's as easy and attractive as possible for people from all walks of life to get vaccinated.

'There's a huge range of options nationwide, including mass clinics, general practice and pharmacies, vaccination buses, pop-ups, drop-ins, drive-throughs, marae and hauora, ethnic and disability clinics, in-home vaccinations and even fly-ins to Mōtīti and the Chatham Islands. For example, in Auckland, more than 150 general practices and 75 pharmacies are vaccinating and more are due to start soon.

'We've got plenty of vaccine supplies on hand with more than 1.3 million vaccine doses in stock currently and shipments arriving regularly.

'Being fully vaccinated gives people a high degree of protection against Delta infection, severe illness, hospitalisation and death. A highly vaccinated population also gives us as a country more options for the future.

'Some people are unable to be vaccinated, such as children younger than 12 years old, but together, we can better protect them if our immunisation rates among eligible people are higher.

'It's critical we keep our collective feet firmly on the accelerator as our vaccine rollout continues. I call on everybody who is yet to get vaccinated and is eligible to please take this opportunity to get vaccinated now.”

9 comments

Braindead

Posted on 27-09-2021 17:12 | By Slim Shady

Well the influencers are the likes of Destiny Church and the Mongrel Mob telling people not to get vaccinated. So when we fail to achieve 90% they will have dictated Government policy.


It’s over

Posted on 27-09-2021 20:53 | By Slim Shady

The pandemic is coming to an end very soon according to numerous scientists that advise CDC. They are forecasting deaths in the US to fall from 1500 per day now to less than 100 by March. The lady who invented the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine has said this coronavirus will be just like the other 4 in circulation and be classed as a “common cold” by the middle of next year. All done and dusted - apart from in New Zealand who will still fretting over it for years. Hahaha.


Influencers and...

Posted on 28-09-2021 07:15 | By Thats Nice

......people who are extremely concerned about putting an experimental concoction of things into their bodies that hasn't had the time or thorough testing of the possible long term effects. No one knows the long term affects as there are no experts on Covid imho.


If it worked

Posted on 28-09-2021 07:38 | By charliebrown

If the vaccine worked we wouldn't need to coerce people to take it to achieve herd immunity. The reality is there are no completed long term studies on the safety of the vaccine. The vaccine is leaky like no other vaccine on the market, the safety profile is understated by the government which is backed up by recorded incidents in the usa showing a ~240 times higher death rate. The only freely promoted covid vaccine information in NZ is propaganda.


Nurses

Posted on 28-09-2021 08:06 | By Slim Shady

It won’t get to 90%. End of. And with the nurses association citing “critical shortages” I think Kiwis are about to see that the caveman mentality is going to hurt them more than the virus ever could.


Sadly, Slim's comment is true.

Posted on 28-09-2021 11:05 | By morepork

However, there is a growing acceptance that vaccination is not harming people and I know several antivaxers who have changed their minds and had the jabs. There will always be some people who prefer to believe a conspiracy, or superstition, or who just want to rebel against ANYTHING that is recommended by official sources, rather than look at the science and understand WHY they need the vaccine. It would be "OK" if it was only themselves who is affected, but, with Covid, their stupidity could cause the death of others. The Government walks a fine line between "encouraging" vaccination, and "mandating" it. Mandating it would be a violation of Human Rights and no self-respecting Democratic government could consider it. And yet, our people must be protected... All things considered, and with the most important statistic being deaths, we are doing very well, even though we didn't follow many countries.


@That's Nice

Posted on 28-09-2021 11:19 | By morepork

No-one knows the long term effects of catching the virus, either. Some papers I have been reading recently are not optimistic, and despite Slim dismissing it as a "common cold", it is not a cold that I would want to catch... Serious damage to internal organs may leave a legacy for life. While it is true that the new mRNA vaccines have NOT had the traditional thorough testing that would normally be the case, the way that it works is well understood, and the traditional test periods are not as critical. We live in the 21st century. Technology is advancing medicine exponentially and it would be wrong to tie all emerging technologies to the same rules as has traditionally been the case, especially when a solution is desperately needed. The vaccines are not being released untested; they simply haven't had the usual long term testing that would normally happen.


@charliebrown

Posted on 28-09-2021 11:28 | By morepork

You don't think that data from the USA is propaganda? "...recorded incidents in the USA showing a ~240 times higher death rate." Higher than What? People who were NOT vaccinated? If you believe that, perhaps I could interest you in a set of encyclopaedias? Or maybe a timeshare on the Gold Coast?... The USA is a tragic horror show at the moment; the only thing that will save them is a better rate of vaccination. They would be the last country that we should be emulating.


learn to read

Posted on 28-09-2021 17:33 | By Slim Shady

It was Professor Sarah Gilbert who invented the AstraZeneca vaccine who said it would soon (next year) be classed as a "common cold". Also, long Covid has recently been shown to have been greatly overestimated. You really should read more.


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