The Southern region, the early pace-setter in the Covid-19 vaccination stakes, has come back to the pack but is still doing better than expected.
A week ago, the Southern District Health Board recorded the best performance against the Ministry of Health’s plan for the introduction of the Covid-19 vaccine, 48% better than anticipated.
New figures released yesterday showed just over 14,000 first doses of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine had been administered in the SDHB region, as well as 2761 second doses.
That represented a 9% better than planned performance, which SDHB vaccine rollout incident controller Hamish Brown said was still pleasing.
"The 48% was driven by the need to vaccinate Queenstown border workers ahead of the transtasman bubble, a scenario that was not part of our original production plan," Mr Brown said.
He said new vaccination clinics would open next month in Oamaru, Gore and Balclutha, to complement existing clinics in Dunedin and Invercargill.
The SDHB was in the final stages of testing its new vaccination booking system and it was expected to be running by the end of the week.
"The new system will allow people to log in, create and manage their own appointments.
"If someone does not attend their appointment, this is recorded in the system and they will be notified to rebook."
