The dose he received at Oamaru Pharmacy was the 500,000th administered in the Southern district.
Initially, Mr Hemaloto was hesitant when it came to the Covid-19 vaccine.
However, the Oamaru meat worker changed his mind recently, wanting to be a good example to his children and help protect them from the virus, and for his own job security.
‘‘I wasn’t going to, but I decided to for my kids ... and for my job,’’ he said.
Southern District Health Board vaccine rollout programme lead Karl Metzler said reaching 500,000 doses was a significant milestone in the nine-month history of the programme.
‘‘Hundreds of people across Otago and Southland have worked tirelessly as vaccinators and administrators to reach this result,’’ Mr Metzler said.
He said a ‘‘tremendous thank you’’ went to the more than 110 providers across the Southern district, the WellSouth and Southern District Health Board teams and the community for ‘‘getting behind this huge effort to keep each other safe from the virus’’.
As of yesterday, 91.1% of the eligible population in the Southern district had received at least one dose, and 80.2% were fully vaccinated.
While the vaccination rate was heading in the right direction, Mr Metzler said there was more to be done to protect the community against the virus which was on its way to the district.
‘‘There are still groups in our community who are unprotected from the virus, and who are at greater risk of becoming seriously ill,’’ he said.
‘‘We still have a lot of mahi to do to. We are not protected until we are all protected.’’
Mr Metzler encouraged anyone who had doubts or questions about the vaccine to talk to a trusted health provider or speak to a clinician at a vaccination clinic.
‘‘It’s OK to have questions about the vaccine, and there is a lot of extremely good information now available that can put people’s minds at rest.’’
