2. Question No. 2—Prime MinisterHon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 2—Prime Minister2. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: What did she mean yesterday when she said When the outbreak started we saw of course as you may expect some demand lift" and does she accept that prior to the current outbreak eligible people wanted to get vaccines but were not able to secure appointments?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes I stand by what I said and no I do not accept the member's assertion.Hon Judith Collins: Why did it take an outbreak to try and speed up vaccine orders when in July Stuff reported that over 37000 group 3 eligible people called a vaccine hotline due to being unable to secure a booking for a COVID-19 vaccine?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The biggest constraint in fact the only constraint we have faced is supply is the delivery of the contracted doses we have with Pfizer—those doses being delivered into New Zealand. So whilst we get basically a four-weekly heads-up on what we can expect—we're told across a quarter of what we can expect—the constraint has been delivery by the pharmaceutical company whom we contracted and began negotiations with before they even finished their clinical trials.Hon Judith Collins: Well if Pfizer is the excuse can she explain how Canada Israel and Germany can all run a Pfizer-focused strategy and achieve double the vaccination rates that we have?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The first thing I'd say is that actually per capita we are beating them on peak doses at the moment by quite some margin with the delivery that we are going through. The second point I would make is that they still have restrictions in place because they still have outbreaks despite having started their vaccine roll-out sooner. I would also point out we have lower case rates lower death rates lower levels of restrictions. All of that for me is a measure of success a measure of success in whether or not your relative strategy for COVID of which there is no costless response—whether or not you've adopted the right strategy for your country. On vaccination programmes so those countries of course they all have multiple vaccines. We decided to deliver Pfizer and in some cases they used emergency approvals rather than going through a full approval process as we did.Hon Judith Collins: Did New Zealand have sufficient vaccine supply in June when the Kāpiti coast man in his 80s told Radio New Zealand he was eligible and wants to get a vaccine but was told by his DHB a vaccine appointment was not then available?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: What I can tell you is that the date that we were releasing cohort invitations—for instance for the 60 to 64-year-olds—76000 bookings were made at that time. For the next cohort another 70000; that's on day one. For the 50 to 55-year-olds 86000 bookings were made on day one. For the 40 to 49-year-olds 137000 bookings on day one. In fact for 1 September we had 196000 bookings made on day one. So those bookings have been available not necessarily on the precise day someone has wanted but they have been available. What we've also done is increase the providers that are available as we've rolled out as well. So in the beginning we had a booking system that didn't necessarily consolidate all of those providers. So that's where you did see some examples of people who may not have been able to access a local booking in a timely way because they didn't necessarily have access to all of the capacity across the area but we've now consolidated that. We've got a single place where you book and we've brought on new providers. So we have now GPs pharmacies. That's all grown over time.Hon Chris Hipkins: Did the Prime Minister and her Ministers indicate at the beginning of the year when the Government opted for a Pfizer-only campaign that that would mean that we would have to wait until the second half of the year to get the bulk of the doses delivered into New Zealand and did discussions start almost immediately at that point to see whether we could speed up those deliveries?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Yes that's absolutely correct and the member will be familiar because he's been part of those discussions with Pfizer around bringing forward those orders as much as possible. Whilst we've always acknowledged that there are constraints on the pharmaceutical companies who have enormous demands on supply across the globe we have managed to get the completion of our order through the month of October whereas you will have heard us initially in the campaign saying that those deliveries would occur across the fourth quarter.Hon Judith Collins: So is the Prime Minister seriously telling the House that the 37000 people who according to Stuff in July had called a vaccine hotline due to being unable to secure a booking for a COVID-19 vaccine were simply wrong—37000 people?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Actually all I can do is refer to the numbers that we have now. I guess the proof will be in whether or not those individuals are indeed vaccinated. So 91 percent of people aged 65-plus are either booked or have been vaccinated with at least one dose—91 percent of people aged 65-plus are booked or have been vaccinated with at least one dose. My challenge then would be to every other age cohort to see if they can rival the incredibly high take-up rate of our 65-pluses. In the hunt are our 40-pluses—they're at 83 percent booked or with at least one dose. If we drop down to the 30-plus 79 percent are booked or have at least one dose. And then really heartening given we only opened up on 1 September 70 percent of people aged 12-plus are booked or have been vaccinated with at least one dose. Those are really heartening numbers; we just need to keep going.Hon Judith Collins: Does she agree that New Zealand will achieve 90 percent vaccination by the end of the year as her economic and regional development Minister said yesterday?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Actually I think what you'll find there is the Minister was suggesting that he feels very positive about the likelihood of a high percentage of New Zealanders taking up the opportunity to be vaccinated because it is true to say that every single person in New Zealand over the age of 12 will have access to a vaccine. So it's up to us to make it as available and as accessible as possible but when we even take out the bookings 86 percent of people aged 65-plus have been vaccinated with one dose already. So he's obviously basing that on what he's seeing with people anticipating going to get vaccinated and he's trying to encourage everyone to continue with those bookings.Hon Judith Collins: Point of order. I seek leave of this House to propose a motion without debate that this House adopts a COVID-19 vaccination target of 90 percent by the end of the year.SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that course of action. There is objection.Hon Chris Hipkins: Which does the Prime Minister think would be the more responsible course of action: encouraging every eligible New Zealander to take up the vaccine or setting a target as was proposed only a few days ago that would suggest that up to 30 percent of New Zealanders could be encouraged not to?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: That is absolutely the issue that public health experts have pointed to. Of course the targets only talk about those who are eligible to be vaccinated and we know at the moment unfortunately children are not in that group right now and so that means we want as many people as possible and that means not creating space for someone to believe that they should be part of the 10 or the 30 percent."