More than 300,000 New Zealanders aged 50-55 years will now be able to book their Covid-19 vaccinations from Friday - earlier than planned.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins gave a update this afternoon on the vaccine rollout.
Hipkins said the strong uptake from the older bands in Group 4 meant the next group could now book sooner than initially expected.
In the Government's original rollout plan, those aged 45-55 were to be allowed to book from mid-August.
Last week, people aged 55-plus were allowed to book a few days earlier than expected.
The decision on the 50-55s will mean they are also brought in a couple of days early - though those aged 45-50 still have a wait for a bit.
Hipkins said vaccine supply was continuing as expected.
"One million doses of the vaccine were delivered in July, and another 1.5 million will be delivered in August, 388,000 of these arriving yesterday morning.
"Being able to open another age band so quickly is a real confidence booster and shows how well New Zealand is embracing the vaccine.
"The booking system continues to perform well with a record 296,650 vaccinations booked last week. We now have 1,009,536 vaccinations booked in the system. Over the last three days the 0800 call centre handled 27,695 calls with an average wait time of less than 1 minute."
There are about 319,000 people in the 50-55 age group and from Friday they can book by going to bookmyvaccine.covid19.health.nz, or by calling the 0800 28 29 26 COVID Vaccination Healthline between 8am and 8pm, 7 days a week.
Ardern said 35 percent of the eligible population had now had one dose and 21 percent were fully vaccinated.
"This rapid take up of the offer to be vaccinated is fantastic." She said bookings had been strong.
Ardern said it meant they could now open to those aged 50 plus from Friday. She emphasised that all other groups which were already under way could continue to book.
Last week, the over-60s were given the green light a few days earlier than expected.
The latest figures in the vaccines rollout show that 2.2 million doses had been administered in New Zealand as of midnight last night, and 820,000 people were now fully vaccinated.
'Mis-information' slows vaccinations at ports
The Prime Minister faced questions on the risk posed by the Delta variant on a container ship off Tauranga. Testing of its crew has returned positive results for 11 of the 21 people on board.
Asked about the risk of port workers going on to the Rio De La Plata, Ardern said vaccinations had been open to port workers "for some time."
She said hesitancy and mis-information had slowed down the uptake in ports.
She pointed out that it was now mandatory for those workers to be vaccinated by the end of September "or it may mean job loss."
Making that mandatory was a big step for private sector companies, but the Government considered the risk was too big not to do it given the low voluntary uptake, she said.
Hipkins said feedback from smaller ports, and Tauranga, was that they would have to stop receiving and sending out cargo: "that would be huge for New Zealand."
Ardern said the 98 port workers who had dealt with that ship had been tested.
Hipkins said six of those had not gone onto the ship. So far, 23 negative results had come back including the pilot who had taken the ship out.
Hipkins said they were looking at whether it was known there were sick people on board when the ship was unloaded.
He said it was not always possible to test a ship's crew before unloading. "But we will look at who knew what when," and what decisions were made when.
Ardern said there were strict requirements around the movements of crew from overseas ships, and for the New Zealand port-side workers dealing with them.
There was a four-day period during which the ship was berthed.
Ardern said port workers had to follow strict protocols.
"However, we want them to be vaccinated too. It is just not good enough to rely on infection controls ... in a high-risk environment."
Hipkins said it was not yet known why the unloading of the ship was paused, and then recommenced.
He said only about nine of the 98 workers were fully vaccinated and two had received their first dose. "Those numbers are too low."
