Eighty-eight per cent of persons over the age of 12 have been fully vaccinated.

This was reported by the Ministry of Health and Medical Services on its progress in their school COVID-19 vaccination programme.

Permanent Secretary Dr James Fong said that with the 94 per cent adult coverage rate, 88 per cent of all persons over 12 years have had both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

He said as of April 28, a total of 123,565 individuals had so far received booster doses.

“The booster dose interval for eligible persons has been reduced to three months from the second dose,” he said.

“This is in recognition of the risk of disease surge based on waning two doses COVID-19 vaccine protection, slow booster uptake, increased international travel with the relaxation of border measures, and ongoing outbreaks in various parts of the world.

“Moderna vaccine and Pfizer vaccines are both available for adult booster doses.”

He said the public was urged to get booster vaccine doses, as the list of vaccination sites was provided daily on the ministry’s social media pages and website.

“We have accepted an offer of 50,000 doses of Pfizer paediatric doses for children aged 5 to 11 by the Aotearoa New Zealand Government.”

“Our vaccination team is currently discussing with counterparts in NZ on further details while our efforts to source more through our other development partners are ongoing.”

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