5. Question No. 5—COVID-19 ResponseCHRIS BISHOP (National) to the Minister for COVID-19 ResponseQuestion No. 5—COVID-19 Response5. CHRIS BISHOP (National) to the Minister for COVID-19 Response: What percentage of people in each of the Government's seven COVID-19 subgroups have not received at least one COVID-19 vaccination and is he confident that the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out is on track to meet the Government target of every adult being offered a vaccine by the end of the year?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): The size of each of those subgroups of people is not a static number and in fact in some of those subgroups particularly the front-line border workers quite large numbers of people are adding and exiting from that category. So a percentage number is impossible to calculate and would be meaningless. However I can give the raw numbers of people in each of those groups who have been provided with vaccines. Across groups 1A and 1B we've provided 53000 first doses and 46000 second doses. Across group 2 306000 people have received their first dose and 211000 people have been given their second dose. In group 3 111000 people have received their first dose and just under 19000 have had their second doses. Finally in group 4—a group that is yet to formally start—nearly 28000 people have been given their first dose and a couple of hundred people have received their second dose. In regard to the second part of the member's question yes.Chris Bishop: How can the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out be on track when around 50 percent of border and managed isolation and quarantine workers and their household contacts have not even had their first shot of the vaccine when that group was meant to be finished by March?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I reject the premise of the member's question. In fact when it comes to household members the estimate put forward was at best a guess. It was an estimate of roughly how many people we thought border workers had within their households and it's not compulsory for that group of people to come forward. How many people come forward from that group is totally up to those people and of course I would say if you're in that group and you haven't had a vaccine yet I'd encourage you to come forward and get one.Chris Bishop: Does the Government record what group people belong to when they're vaccinated; and if not what is the point of the groups?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Yes we do but people can belong to more than one group and so therefore it is possible that some of the people in group 1B—for example household members who also may qualify in group 2 or in group 3—can be coded under that group. Chris Bishop: Has he sought an explanation of how one district health board had to destroy a thousand doses of the vaccine in April and how does he think the thousands of high-risk people out there contacting their GPs desperate to get a vaccine would feel about knowing that a thousand doses were destroyed in April?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: That is a very rare event in New Zealand's COVID-19 vaccine roll-out and I would say that the people who are waiting for vaccines can be confident that New Zealand has one of the lowest vaccine dosage wastage rates in the world. The World Health Organization says that countries should plan for a 10-15 percent wastage rate of their vaccines and New Zealand sits at under 2 percent wastage.Chris Bishop: Is it correct that for a 49-day period in September and October the Ministry of Health model says we need to vaccinate 75000 people per day and is he confident the roll-out will scale up to that level of vaccinations per day?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: The vaccine roll-out model has continued to be refined as we've understood more about both what we can expect in terms of deliveries but also how we can make sure that we are rolling out the vaccine in a sustainable way. Work has been undertaken since the model was first mooted with district health boards to try and smooth demand during that latter part of the year so that we don't end up with big peaks and troughs. As a result the average should be for a sustained period of time around 50000 a day. That doesn't mean that there aren't going to be unders and overs within that. We know at the moment we have lower vaccination rates for example in the weekends; we tend to reach the peak vaccination rates around the middle of the week. Mondays can often be a bit slower; Fridays are often the best day. So there'll be unders and overs within that but we will be averaging for a sustained period of time 50000 doses a day and that is how we will get to the population coverage that we're aiming for.Chris Bishop: In light of that answer will he instruct the Ministry of Health to update the model publicly available on the Ministry of Health website—because at the moment the model simply shows that between September and October we will have to do 75000 doses per day?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: The vaccine model will be updated at the appropriate time. One of the things that will determine that of course is further guidance on vaccine deliveries. We'll get further information in July as to what we're expecting to have delivered in August and September.