About five per cent of Kiwis received their second dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 jab outside the period recommended by the Ministry of Health.
This means that of the more than 42,700 people who had their second vaccine administered as of last week, about 2100 of them had their vaccination delayed beyond the preferred timeframe.
Under the current guidelines, it’s advised that Kiwis should receive their second jab at least three weeks apart or “as soon as practically possible” after that.
A Ministry of Health spokesperson said the remaining 95 per cent of people who have received a Pfizer vaccine had gotten their second dose within five weeks of their first.
The Ministry of Health has recommended up to a six-week window for people to get their second dose of the vaccine, in line with the Australian and US guidelines.
The spokesperson said there’s little known about whether the effectiveness of the second dose is affected by prolonging vaccination, but those who delay it won’t have to start the process again.
There's currently more than 97,000 people awaiting their second dose, with the Ministry of Health saying its confident DHBs have the capacity to deliver.
Since the Covid-19 vaccination programme began two months ago, about three per cent of vaccines have been left to waste, the spokesperson said.
That’s roughly 5700 doses of the 189,000 distributed to District Health Boards throughout the country.
“The Ministry is seeing more efficient Covid-19 vaccines usage than initially predicted, which is a tribute to the hard work of New Zealand’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout team,” the spokesperson told 1 NEWS.
Originally the Government had forecast a wastage of 5.3 per cent of the vaccines, higher than the current figure.
It’s thought the extractions of the Pfizer-BioTech vaccine largely played a role in this, as DHBs have been able to administer more doses per vial than thought.
Allowing the vaccine to defrost, expire or be damaged by human error are just some of the reasons why a dose would need to be discarded.
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