7. Question No. 7—HealthDr SHANE RETI (National—Whangarei) to the Associate Minister of HealthQuestion No. 7—Health7. Dr SHANE RETI (National—Whangarei) to the Associate Minister of Health: Does she agree with Dr Ashley Bloomfield that all New Zealanders are now able to get a flu jab"?Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Associate Minister of Health): Yes. On Monday 27 March the prioritisation criteria that the Government had put in place to ensure our most vulnerable were able to get their flu vaccine was lifted. This means that all New Zealanders are now eligible to ring their GP or pharmacist and make an appointment to get vaccinated. In previous years there was never a prioritisation system put in place so this year we acted early to ensure that the most at-risk New Zealanders had a head start on getting their flu vaccine in this unprecedented time of a global pandemic.Dr Shane Reti: How does that align with her statement this Saturday that "not every New Zealander will get a flu vaccine"?Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: Well as we have maintained the entire time we have a record number of flu vaccines this year: that's 1.768 million. He will realise that that is less than the population of New Zealand. None the less in previous years one out of four New Zealanders got a flu vaccine; this year we're on track for more than one out of three. We already have record numbers of people over the age of 65 having been vaccinated—that's on the Nation Immunisation Register (NIR)—more Māori over the age of 65 have been vaccinated than in any previous year and that's with us only having the records of about 770000 vaccines. So there is still yet a million vaccines to either be administered or for the records to come through.Dr Shane Reti: What does she say then to New Zealanders who may eventually miss out on a flu vaccine because there are not enough?Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: I would say that there's very low risk of flu this year. The flu tracker is showing us that we have record low levels of the flu due to the borders being closed. In all of the precautions that we are taking to prevent the spread of COVID-19 we are also preventing the spread of the flu. We have already vaccinated record numbers of vulnerable people. So I think the clinical outcome of this year's flu vaccine is excellent and I want to thank all those hard-working GPs nurses and pharmacists who have been vaccinating people at twice the rate of last year—an excellent outcome.Dr Shane Reti: Why is this the second winter in a row under her watch when the front line have had no flu vaccines when they needed them?Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: I'm really not sure what the member's referring to. This is actually the first year that I've had the delegation for this firstly. But secondly I believe that some GPs are running low and that is because they are vaccinating people at twice the rate of last year. Also we're in the midst of a global pandemic with unprecedented travel restrictions both internationally and nationally and that has led to some distribution issues. But everybody is working as hard as they possibly can. The clinical outcome so far is so good that I think GPs nurses and pharmacists are going to look back on the outcome of this year and the record numbers of vulnerable people who were vaccinated and say that this was a very big clinical success.Dr Shane Reti: When people look back will it be the same distribution issue she has mentioned now as the distribution issue she quoted for the flu vaccine last year and the measles vaccine?Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: I think that the circumstances that we're facing right now with a global pandemic and a 90 percent reduction in international travel and significant reductions in inter-regional travel here in New Zealand are not comparable to issues that we've previously had with vaccines no. But I will come back to: the outcome is very good because GPs have actually been vaccinating people at twice the rate they had last year they have had significant supplies they've administered them to record numbers of New Zealanders and we still have a million vaccines to either be administered or to be entered for the records to come through in the NIR.Hon Dr Nick Smith: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I seek leave to table an email from my own Nelson Marlborough DHB received today saying they have run out of flu vaccinations.SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that occurring? There is none.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House."