9. Question No. 9—COVID-19 ResponseCHRIS BISHOP (National) to the Minister for COVID-19 ResponseQuestion No. 9—COVID-19 Response9. CHRIS BISHOP (National) to the Minister for COVID-19 Response: Does he stand by all of the Government's policies and statements in responding to COVID-19?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): Yes in particular the Government's decision to keep New Zealanders safe from COVID-19 over the last year and a half. As we announced at the beginning of August we've got a plan to reconnect New Zealanders with the world and help as many New Zealanders as possible to return home. It's a plan that continues the careful and cautious approach to balance the risks that we face with making sure that New Zealand comes through this pandemic together. New Zealanders can be proud of the approach that they've taken to COVID-19 to date. It's one that's left us in the position of having one of the lowest mortality rates from COVID-19 in the world one of the lowest hospitalisation rates from COVID-19 in the world and one of the fewest days of restrictions of any country in the world and relative to other countries our economy has held up remarkably well.Chris Bishop: Why did New Zealand only have a vaccination rate of 20 percent on 7 August when Delta entered New Zealand?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Vaccine supply.Chris Bishop: Does he agree with the Prime Minister that—to quote her—We have taken our rightful place in the delivery of vaccine." and does that indicate why New Zealand spent most of this year having the developed world's slowest vaccine roll-out?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I'm not quite sure what the thrust of the member's question is. New Zealand's vaccine roll-out has accelerated rapidly as the supply of vaccines has been available to New Zealand. In fact we have delivered on a per capita per day basis one of the highest rates of vaccination of any countries in the world.Chris Bishop: Does he regret saying last year that New Zealand would be at the front of the queue for COVID-19 vaccines in light of the fact that we have had for most of this year the developed world's slowest vaccine roll-out?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: That is of course one of those comments that was made in a particular context including the fact that at that point there were no vaccines available on the market at all and New Zealand had an advance purchase agreement for four different vaccines. If you take the fullness of the quote which was that as vaccines come to the market New Zealanders towards the front of the queue have access to them it was absolutely true. We had access to the Pfizer vaccine from February; it was in relatively small quantities at the beginning though. But I'd also remind the members opposite that in their crystal-ball gazing they were encouraging us to buy vaccines other than the Pfizer vaccine.Hon Grant Robertson: What does the Minister think would have been the consequence of the Government asking for vaccines to be given out before they'd been approved by our medical authorities?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Well that is of course another one of the reasons why our vaccine roll-out was slower to start than some other countries. We made the decision not to use an emergency approval process but to make sure it was run through a regular thorough approval process. When we made that decision it is worth remembering that we were seeing research that suggested up to a third of New Zealanders were not willing to have the vaccine at that time. By taking a thorough and considered approach to the roll-out of the vaccine we have reduced that number down to a much much smaller number.Chris Bishop: At what point will this current lockdown—which was promised to be short and sharp—end?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I reject the assertion in the member's question. Our goal with every lockdown where we've had to do them is to make them short and sharp but we always have to respond to what the testing during the early stages of a lockdown shows us and that shows us that this particular outbreak was already well under way for at least a week before it was first detected and that of course does have an impact on the overall level of restrictions that we have.Chris Bishop: Why is it still not mandatory for healthcare workers in COVID-19 work streams to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when many other countries did this months ago?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: One of the things that we have to bear in mind is that we need to keep our healthcare workers and where there is a mandatory vaccination requirement put in place you have to be willing for the fact that you might lose some of those workers who are unwilling to be vaccinated and our health system is under a significant amount of pressure. We have found as we found with our border workforce that before moving to a mandatory vaccination requirement it is best first to start with the "educate and encourage" approach and you can get quite a high degree of the way there—potentially a further way there—than if you start immediately at the mandatory vaccination - requirement end of the spectrum."