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: How many doses by month of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine are yet to be delivered and are reports correct that the New Zealand Government asked for vaccine shipments from Pfizer to be delayed beyond September 2021?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): In answer to the first part of the question under our current agreements with Pfizer we're expecting 1.6 million doses of the vaccine to be delivered in September and the remaining balance of our 10.1 million doses to be delivered during October. Agreements entered into from the beginning of the year had set delivery numbers for each quarter. The Government has been given delivery numbers week by week for each month roughly a month ahead of that time. In answer to the second part of the question categorically no. At no point have we ever asked Pfizer to slow down deliveries. In fact all of our discussions with Pfizer around the timing of deliveries have been around trying to bring forward deliveries to get them into the country earlier.Chris Bishop: Why did he say in June this year that New Zealand is not paying any particular price" and "the overall cost to New Zealand … is relatively negligible" for the slow vaccine roll-out and does he accept that a country-wide level 4 lockdown has an enormous cost to New Zealanders economically and socially?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I completely reject the overall assertion in the member's question that if we had a higher rate of vaccines at the moment we wouldn't necessarily be finding ourselves with the current restrictions that we do. Other countries that do have higher rates of vaccination than New Zealand have still had to implement public health measures in response to outbreaks of COVID-19.Chris Bishop: What steps if any has the Government taken to try and get the 1.6 million doses—that he's just mentioned due for delivery in September and the balance due in October—delivered sooner than now given other countries have managed to do just that?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I think if the member had listened to the contribution I made earlier in regard to the ministerial statement he will know that we have been in regular communication with Pfizer seeking earlier deliveries of our doses. Pfizer have consistently indicated to us that their production is fully committed to orders that they are fulfilling around the world including their commitment to deliver at least 40 percent of the doses that they are producing to developing countries. Pfizer have also been very very clear that they would not be willing to bump any other countries in order to increase the delivery of doses to countries that can afford to pay more.Chris Bishop: So in light of that answer what is his explanation as to why New Zealand has the slowest or the second slowest depending on how you cut the numbers vaccine roll-out in the OECD? What actually is the reason for that?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world that is only using one vaccine at the moment. We made the decision early this year around January February to not use the other vaccines that we could have had available to us this year because we chose to increase our orders with Pfizer and use only Pfizer this year. All of the science so far has backed up that decision. That is not a decision that I have regretted. We were very clear at the time we made that decision that we would have to wait until the second half of the year for the bulk of those vaccines to be delivered into New Zealand. I believe that Pfizer and ensuring that we have one vaccine delivered through New Zealand was worth the wait.Chris Bishop: So is he basically telling the House that the Government has made a conscious and deliberate decision to take longer over the vaccine roll-out in order to make sure that everyone can get a dose of Pfizer as opposed to a cocktail or variety of other vaccines?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I think we made it very clear earlier in the year when we announced that we were only going to be using Pfizer this year that that would mean that the bulk of our vaccines would be delivered in the second half of the year.David Seymour: When the Minister said earlier that having a higher vaccination rate wouldn't necessarily reduce lockdowns is he telling the House that the advertisements which appear to promise New Zealanders that if they get vaccinated then we won't have as many restrictions on things such as tangi are wrong or misleading?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: No. It is possible to have two different ideas in play here. One is overall will the number of restrictions that we are subject to reduce as a result of a higher vaccination rate? The answer to that question is yes. Will there potentially still be a need for some restrictions in the event of significant-scale outbreaks in future? The answer to that is yes. Is the nature of those restrictions potentially going to change? And the answer to that question is also yes. Has Delta changed the overall dynamic around vaccines? The answer to that question is also yes. So there are a variety of different factors at play here. But it would be wrong to say for example if we accepted a low-ball target—like the 70 percent of eligible population target that some have been suggesting—that would not give us the level of population coverage required to avoid things like the lockdown we're dealing with at the moment. David Seymour: Why does the Minister believe that vaccination will mean we can use fewer restrictive measures against COVID in the future but having a higher vaccination rate now would have had no effect on the current restrictions?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: There will be a range of different things that influence the decisions that the New Zealand Government—whoever the New Zealand Government is—gets to make in the future around COVID-19. Rates of vaccination in New Zealand will be one of those things. Rates of vaccination around the world will be another one of them. The rate of presentation of the virus at the border will be one of the factors at play. The number and size of potential outbreaks in New Zealand will be one of the things we deal with. Additional variants of the virus will be one of the things that we deal with. Overall the message to New Zealanders though is that the higher the rate of vaccination we get the greater our possibilities. That is what the advertisements say and that is absolutely true.Chris Bishop: Can he guarantee that every booking currently in the vaccine booking system will be honoured over the next couple of months and no booking will be cancelled or delayed due to a possible shortage of supply in the next couple of months?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: In the way the vaccine roll-out has been scaled up we have been focused on making sure that we honour all bookings in the booking system. What we may find ourselves in the position of doing is if we cannot increase supply in the next five or six weeks we may find ourselves having to restrict ourselves to those vaccines that have been booked and scale back some of the additional capacity that's being brought online over the last few weeks."