6. Question No. 6—COVID-19 ResponseDr TRACEY McLELLAN (Labour—Banks Peninsula) to the Minister for COVID-19 ResponseQuestion No. 6—COVID-19 Response6. Dr TRACEY McLELLAN (Labour—Banks Peninsula) to the Minister for COVID-19 Response: What recent progress has been made on New Zealand's COVID19 vaccine programme?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister for COVID-19 Response): 2021 has been the year of the vaccine. The Government made a commitment that every eligible New Zealander would have the opportunity to be vaccinated by the end of the year. I'm incredibly proud to be able to report back to the House that as of midnight last night we've administered over 7897000 doses of the vaccine across New Zealand reaching 3.9-and-a-half million eligible New Zealanders. Ninety-four percent of the eligible population have now had their first dose and we are about 16000 doses shy of reaching the national target of 90 percent of the eligible population being fully vaccinated. All but three of our district health boards have now achieved the 90 percent first dose target around six DHBs have already reported 90 percent double dosed and despite a range of challenges and logistical complexities we've maintained our commitments to New Zealanders around vaccination and with the help of many New Zealanders we've delivered on rolling out the largest immunisation programme the country has ever seen so I want to extend my thanks to every single New Zealander who has done their bit for New Zealand by being vaccinated.Dr Tracey McLellan: What work has been done to support the vaccination programme?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: A phenomenal effort's been undertaken by thousands of people across the country. We've been able to train 15501 vaccinators and they've been working across 1926 different vaccination sites across the country. That's included 77 Māori health providers 27 Pacific health providers 32 marae 12 schools and 13 places of worship. We've had 257 different mobile clinics. I want to thank everyone who's been playing their part in the ongoing roll-out of this vaccination programme—whether that's behind the scenes dealing with administration and logistics running vaccination sites delivering the vaccination shots or undertaking something as simple as driving people to their nearest vaccination station. If anyone out there has done any of those things or even if they have just encouraged a friend or a family member to be vaccinated I say thank you to them. They are helping to keep New Zealand safe from COVID-19.Dr Tracey McLellan: What have been some of the key highlights from the vaccination programme over the last year?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: There are heaps but I'll just pick a couple. The success of Super Saturday also should be recorded at this point where over 130000 people received a vaccination. That included a significant 39000 first doses. That's around 3 percent of the eligible population receiving a vaccination dose in a single day. I'd also want to note the successful establishment of the immunisation register and the booking system which have worked very very well to support the vaccination roll-out. I also want to note the work that we have done to secure additional doses for our booster campaign and of course further doses as required in the future.Dr Tracey McLellan: What will be the focus of the vaccination programme going into the new year?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: The two big parts of the vaccination programme in the early part of next year will be a decision around a paediatric vaccination campaign for five- to 11-year-olds. The Government is following the science on that very closely and we are awaiting further advice from Medsafe and from our Technical Advisory Group. The second major priority in the first part of next year will be the ongoing roll-out of the booster shots or third doses of the vaccination. We are already under way with that this year; we expect bigger numbers to become eligible in the new year and we are ready to make sure that they can get their vaccines.Chris Bishop: Has New Zealand raised a purchase order for Pfizer vaccines for five- to 11-year-olds; and is it still his expectation that vaccinations for this age group will roll out in January 2022?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: We have a confirmed advanced purchase agreement for those particular doses. In terms of the purchase order i.e. the delivery schedule that cannot be confirmed Pfizer will not confirm that until Medsafe have approved the vaccine.