Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says people will see the Covid-19 virus “mutate” even more as vaccinations get underway, but that it shouldn’t be a cause for alarm.
“We absolutely expected the virus to mutate, to get a competitive advantage, as you might say. It will evolve,” Bloomfield said today in a press conference, as he took questions from media shortly after PM Jacinda Ardern announced the approval of New Zealand's first Covid-19 vaccine.
“That will happen more as we use the vaccine because when people are protected or immunised against the existing strains, the virus will try to find ways to get around the vaccine.”
Bloomfield also said mutations were bound to happen because so many people overseas had gotten infected with Covid-19.
The good news is that vaccine manufacturers, including Pfizer, are showing “promising” results against new variants like the one detected in the UK, Bloomfield said.
He said the variant found in South Africa does seem to reduce the vaccine’s effectiveness, but the jabs remained “highly effective”.
The Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine has been provisionally approved for use in New Zealand.
The Prime Minister said it was hoped NZ’s border workers could be vaccinated within three weeks of the vaccine’s arrival. (Source: Other)
Provisional approval means the vaccine needs to meet certain conditions, and more data needs to be gathered from clinical trials.
The country's medical regulator, Medsafe, met yesterday for final discussions on the jab before sign-off was sought from a ministerial group.
Group manager of Medsafe Chris James said questions still remain over the vaccine’s ability to prevent or reduce transmission of Covid-19, and the regulator will continue receiving information from overseas and manufacturers about the jab.
He said Medsafe is in the process of reviewing vaccine applications from Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen and Oxford-AstraZeneca.
James said Janssen’s application was “progressing well”, and sign-off could happen as soon as early in the next quarter.
AstraZeneca’s application was only lodged this week, and information has been coming in to Medsafe. James said he wasn’t sure yet about when it would be signed off.
He said Medsafe hasn’t received an application yet from Novavax, the other vaccine New Zealand has ordered.
It’s hoped frontline workers will start getting a vaccine in the second quarter of 2021. (Source: Other)
The double-dose Pfizer vaccine could start arriving in the country from next month. New Zealand has ordered 1.5 million doses, enough for 750,000 people.
New Zealand has also ordered five million doses of the Janssen vaccine, 3.8 million of the AstraZeneca jab and 5.36 million doses of the Novavax vaccine.
SHARE ME