Essential workers who are “customer facing” are being bumped up the vaccine queue after the Government was criticised for not prioritising the group.
It’s something supermarkets, the police and taxi drivers have been demanding.
Epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker said unvaccinated essential workers are a “weak spot” in our lockdown, and have greater potential to transmit the virus if infected.
About 60,000 people work in New Zealand’s supermarkets. It’s unclear how many are vaccinated, but a lot are young so would have had to wait longer for their jabs.
First Union said prioritising the workers is common sense and should have been the default position from the start.
“ Vaccinating frontline workers or essential workers is the way that we are going to protect society,” said First Union’s Jared Abbott.
The Government will work with employers of essential workers to identify who should now be getting the jab sooner.
About 20 percent of New Zealanders are fully vaccinated, and about one third have had a single dose. The Prime Minister reaffirmed that the vaccine supply chain is working well, with daily deliveries.
One idea being explored to boost vaccine rates, is drive-throughs, similar to testing stations. The Government received advice from the Ministry of Health on drive-through vaccination centres on August 5.
The ACT Party wants to know when the Government first sought the advice. “Vaccinating in cars is one obvious strategy but if the Government only got the advice at the beginning of this August, when did they start asking the questions,” ACT leader David Seymour said. He said drive-through vaccinations have been used in Australia since April. “Once again we’ve been found flat-footed,” said Seymour.
The Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said individual DHBs have assessed the use of drive-throughs. She said it wont be efficient for all DHBs.
“Some are looking at drive-through vaccinations but some have decided alternate methods will work better,” said Ardern.
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