5. Question No. 5—COVID-19 ResponseHELEN WHITE (Labour) to the Minister for COVID-19 ResponseQuestion No. 5—COVID-19 Response5. HELEN WHITE (Labour) to the Minister for COVID-19 Response: What recent progress has been made on New Zealand's COVID-19 vaccine programme? Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): Over the weekend New Zealand reached another important milestone in administering 7 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine across the country. As of last night 3.76 million New Zealanders have received their first dose. That represents 89 percent of the eligible population across New Zealand. Over 3.3 million Kiwis have now had two doses of the vaccine meaning that 79 percent of eligible New Zealanders are fully vaccinated. From here every additional vaccination is another step closer to being able to transition to the new protection framework which will mean restrictions will be able to ease for vaccinated New Zealanders. Helen White: What recent vaccination milestones have been reached in Auckland? Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I'm very pleased to say that on Sunday Counties Manukau DHB reached 90 percent first doses meaning that all three Auckland DHBs have now crossed that 90 percent threshold for first doses. That is a key milestone on the path to Auckland opening up again. Auckland DHB is at 95 percent for first doses and at 87 percent for second. The Waitamatā DHB is at 92 percent for first doses and 83 percent for second doses and Counties Manukau is now at 90 percent first doses and 80 percent for second doses. Auckland will move across to the new traffic light system with fewer restrictions once all three DHBs have reached that 90 percent fully vaccinated rate which is now well and truly within reach. Helen White: What further work is being done to help promote uptake of the vaccine across Auckland? Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: There's been a huge amount of targeted work going across by local health providers to make sure vaccines are easily accessible and also to address the really important issue of vaccine hesitancy and it's good to see that that work's paying off. In particular I want to note the work of our Māori and Pacific providers in Counties Manukau. They are making a real difference. Getting to 90 percent first doses in many cases required them to literally go door to door and have individual conversations with people to address misinformation among other things. Getting every DHB in Auckland up to the 90 percent fully vaccinated marker is now within our reach. On current daily rates we could be there within a couple of weeks—within potentially two to three weeks—as long as people do return for their second dose. Everyone wants restrictions to be eased as soon as possible and we need to keep going to get those final second doses up there so that we can start to ease those restrictions with confidence. Helen White: What recent progress has been made around the use of a booster vaccine as part of the COVID-19 vaccine programme? Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Medsafe who are the first step in the process gazetted the decision yesterday to approve the use of booster doses for people aged 18 and older at least six months after the first dose. That's the first step in the process. The next step is for the COVID-19 Technical Advisory Group and the Ministry of Health to provide advice to the Government that will help to inform the use of booster doses. That will include whether there should be any age limits the interval between the second dose and the booster dose and so on. We understand that the health and border workforce are particularly concerned about whether or not they'll be needing a booster dose and so we're working towards providing them that reassurance as soon as we can. I would note that the trials by Pfizer had a median interval between the second dose and the booster dose of 11 months and no New Zealanders are currently in that category.