1. Question No. 1—Prime MinisterHon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Prime Minister1. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by her statements from earlier this year in relation to COVID-19 vaccines We absolutely accepted we wouldn't be the first rolling out because the equation in New Zealand is so different" and "I support the fact we have been later in the pecking order"?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): I stand by my statements in full. Rather than read them out I would summarise by saying that our approach has been focused on saving lives—that included in our public health strategy but also in securing vaccines. Yes there has been constrained supply and not every country has received vaccines at the same rate but as we've received them we've been rolling them out and we've ramped up considerably. But that doesn't change the fact that we've had a very different starting point than many other countries in terms of the public health impact of COVID-19 on our populations.Hon Judith Collins: Why is New Zealand last in the OECD for people who have received at least one vaccine dose and 120th in the world?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I'm not sure whether or not the member is using the most up-to-date data because of course we've had over 500000 doses delivered in the last seven days which means we're now in a position where 50 percent of the eligible population has had at least their first dose—27 percent of the eligible population are fully vaccinated and that takes into account the age range change of those down to the age of 12. I think another really important point to make is that we are just at the point where we've seen that really large steep ramp up of our campaign. That's because the larger deliveries that we expected to receive came for us through September but predominantly are in October and based on that we've now surpassed the peak rate of Canada of the UK of the USA. I understand that the only ones that have been higher we are now on par with and that is South Korea and we of course have not finished our scaling up.Hon Judith Collins: Is New Zealand last in the OECD for people who have received at least one vaccine dose?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: No not according to the latest information that I've been provided.Hon Judith Collins: Why did she wait until 29 January this year to confirm New Zealand's first vaccine order?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Of course the member knows that we ran a programme of accessing or seeking supply and purchase arrangements with more than one pharmaceutical company and more than one vaccine. I think it's easy to forget that actually last year many countries were purchasing vaccines before they'd even completed clinical trials and we were in that position too. So our approach was to seek vaccines that were across different technologies and therefore one for instance RNA vaccine; one of a more traditional variety that led to us seeking Janssen Novavax Pfizer and AstraZeneca. We then made a decision later on in the campaign that our view was that purchasing for the totality of our population with one option was the best way to go for our delivery campaign. We have that with Pfizer—over 10 million doses the bulk of those being delivered in October. The biggest difference though between us and many other countries is that they started rolling out their vaccines under emergency approvals rather than full approvals. Our focus was ensuring that we had the confidence of New Zealanders so we used a full Medsafe approval. That alongside supply explains some of the differences in the roll-outs between different countries.Hon Chris Hipkins: Can the Prime Minister confirm that advanced purchase agreements for all four of the vaccines that she mentioned were entered into last year and that the purchase order the Leader of the Opposition referred to was a formality required to enable delivery that could only be completed after Medsafe had approved the vaccine for use in New Zealand?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I can and that was actually the basis of a rather confused line of questioning a few weeks ago. Those arrangements of course you can see that we entered into in advance of when some of those then order placements were made and we started our roll-out only if I recall the following month thus demonstrating that that was more procedural.Hon Judith Collins: Does she agree with modelling from Shaun Hendy that shows a Delta outbreak would be smaller and the lockdown shorter if we had 50 percent rather than 25 percent of people fully vaccinated?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Of course our goal is to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible. I've just shared with the member some of the latest data taking into account our eligible population going down to the age of 12 in which we see 51.7 percent of the eligible population having received at least one dose and 27 percent having been fully vaccinated. But Mr Hendy would not be implying that at that vaccination level that the member has just shared that we would not have an outbreak. In fact many epidemiologists have raised the fact that we need the highest rates of vaccination possible to reduce down the chances of outbreaks and the devastating hospitalisations and severe illnesses that we're seeing in other countries. I would also point to the fact that countries that have had vaccination programmes running for many many months like the United States is now experiencing daily hospitalisations of 100000. The last time they reached that was when they had their peak in their last winter. So it is just simply wrong to say that if you have months of available vaccination that you prevent outbreaks. You've got to reach every corner of your community to the best of your ability if you are going to be successful in reducing those numbers.Hon Judith Collins: Would the current outbreak be smaller and the current lockdown shorter if we had more people vaccinated?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I'm not an epidemiologist so I'm not going to model on the fly but as I just explained to the member even with those countries where you do have vaccinations that have been available for months we are still seeing hospitalisation rates that rival past outbreaks. And from what our experts have shared with us that's because it's not necessarily about the percentage but whether or not you have enough people across different age demographics different communities different geographic areas different ethnicities. That's got to be our measure of success in New Zealand and that is what we're driving towards.Hon Judith Collins: What does she say to the New Zealanders who trusted her to get them vaccinated but woke up to the news yesterday that we may run out of vaccines?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: That that portrayal by the Leader of the Opposition is incorrect.Hon Judith Collins: Did the Government ask Pfizer to slow down delivery of vaccine so as her COVID response Minister told Newstalk ZB in June "we don't end up with a whole lot sitting in the freezer." and is her Government now asking them to speed it up again as her associate health Minister told media yesterday?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The member is sharing factually and misleading information. We have over 10 million doses of Pfizer for our country's roll-out. That is more than the number of people who are even eligible for a vaccine. What the Minister for the COVID-19 Response was referring to was as we reach the point where all of those vaccines are delivered how can we ensure that we see no wastage for the fact that we have more doses than we have people who are eligible to receive them and we have expiries for vaccines for the RNA vaccine that are at best four months. I wish that the member would pay more attention to the detail of the Minister's statements rather than misleading people.Hon Judith Collins: What did she mean when she said "It's not a matter of running out. We need to have a little less demand." and can she rule out delaying vaccination appointments to achieve this?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I referenced this to the fact that we have enough Pfizer vaccine to cover our entire eligible population. We of course have wanted to receive them as early as possible. And to the question that David Seymour asked earlier on in ministerial statements we have repeatedly sought from Pfizer to see if we can receive them as early as possible and you'll see from the ministerial diary some of those engagements with Pfizer on that matter. As a result of that yes we haven't received them necessarily as early in the programme as we would like but rather than receiving in the latter part of quarter four we are receiving them across the course of October. So that is something that is beneficial to us in the long run although of course we would have wanted them as early as possible. So the issue that we've had of course in this month is we are receiving weekly to date deliveries that are over 300000. That has enabled us to deliver roughly 350000 a week. During this period we have purposely created surge capacity. So that's increased the number of people who have been coming forward so it's been more like 500000. If we are unable to bring on extra supply as we are seeking to do the worst-case scenario is we simply go back to the plan we have of continuing to deliver over 350000 a week."