More than three million Kiwis are now eligible for a Covid-19 booster, thanks to a shortened interval time between that jab and a person’s second dose.
But, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said uptake could be faster.
In recent days, uptake for boosters had hovered between 30,000 to 40,000 doses a day.
In comparison, demand for vaccines was high in late August last year as Delta spread, with more than 80,000 doses delivered in a day. On Super Saturday in October, just over 130,000 doses were administered.
“At this stage, it is a bit anecdotal as to why, perhaps, we haven’t seen the high rates of demand,” Ardern said when she was asked if people were hesitant to get their third jab.
“What I have observed is that in other countries when Omicron spread at a faster rate, people were quicker on the uptake with their booster.”
Ardern said she had been speaking to health teams on the ground to get a sense of what was happening.
But, once Omicron was spreading rapidly through a community, it would be too late to get the full benefits of the vaccine, she added.
“So please don’t delay. Get it today.”
She pointed out the Director-General of Health’s comment earlier this week that the side effects from getting a booster appeared to be of “a lesser degree” than the first two doses.
In total, just over 1.44 million boosters had been administered since boosters were approved in New Zealand, representing about 37 per cent of the eligible population aged 18 and over.
The Government reduced the interval between a person’s second Covid-19 vaccine dose and booster from four to three months in the bid to get as many people boosted as quickly as possible.
Kiwis did not need their booster shot to have a vaccine passport at this point.
New Zealanders under 18 were still not eligible to receive a booster shot.
Boosters lowered the chance of a person getting very ill if they caught Covid-19. It also helped to slow the spread of the virus.
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