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New Zealand’s Covid-19 vaccines will be rolled out in 2021.
The government said it expected front-line workers to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in the second quarter of 2021 and then begin vaccinating the public in the second half of the year.
Subsequently, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that despite the wording of the statement, the government expected the first doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to arrive in New Zealand in the first quarter.
Regardless, New Zealand’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign will lag a bit behind that of the fastest-moving countries, including the UK and US, where people have already started getting the Pfizer vaccine.
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Australia has said it hopes to start delivering Covid-19 vaccines in March 2021 and have the entire population covered by the end of the year.
Mark Lennihan / AP
Sandra Lindsay, a nurse at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, is inoculated with the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine by Dr. Michelle Chester this week in New York.
In Thursday’s announcement, Ardern did everything he could to justify the timing of New Zealand’s vaccination.
“We are moving as fast as we can, but we also want to make sure the vaccine is safe for New Zealanders,” he said. “All of these vaccines have yet to pass Medsafe approval for use here in New Zealand.
“As you may know, some countries are granting emergency use authorizations prior to the usual clinical evaluation and approval process.
“That is in response to the public health emergency that is taking over your nations. Unlike New Zealand, they face widespread community transmission of Covid-19 and a rapidly increasing death toll, ”Ardern said.
Jeremy Davidson / AP
This October image shows part of a football field-sized facility to store Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccines being built in the US The Pfizer vaccine must be kept at a temperature of -70 ° C.
“For example, the UK’s emergency authorization to use the Pfizer vaccine only allows targeted access to specific groups at risk, rather than authorizing vaccines for its broader population at this stage.
“Canada also announced last week that it had issued a conditional authorization for the Pfizer vaccine for use by persons 16 years of age and older, again due to its public health emergency.
“The US Food and Drug Administration also issued an emergency use authorization in recent weeks and vaccination began there this week,” Ardern said.
“Obviously, we are in a completely different situation here. However, Medsafe is running ongoing applications for Covid-19 vaccines, which means they can submit the data as it is complete and ready for evaluation.
Experts say the death toll is a grim reminder to stick with restrictions despite the optimistic outlook for vaccination.
“This may allow for faster approval by Medsafe, but with the same level of rigorous scrutiny that all drugs in New Zealand undergo.
“It is also important to remember that there is a huge global demand for Covid-19 vaccines. Manufacturers can only produce and ship doses so fast, ”he said.
“A good chunk” of New Zealand’s vaccine doses were expected to arrive from the first half of 2021, but spread into the second half.
“Taking into account, of course, we are still awaiting data to demonstrate the effectiveness of the vaccines currently being developed in reducing human-to-human transmission,” Ardern warned.
“Much is unknown. Delivery dates are not guaranteed. Some vaccines that we agree with may not be successful, ”he said. That is why the Government had agreements for a portfolio of vaccines.
About 800,000 doses are expected to be delivered this week as the country becomes the first in the world to implement the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
While some countries had already started their vaccination campaigns, many were only expected to finish within a time frame similar to New Zealand, Ardern said. “It is not the date we start that matters. It is the date we finished “
There is also the issue of waiting for vaccines to be delivered.
“A small portion” of the 750,000 cycles of the Pfizer vaccine obtained by New Zealand in the first quarter was expected, with the rest arriving during the rest of the year.
Pfizer’s vaccine “as the first taxi out of range” was in high demand, Ardern said. “No country currently has enough Pfizer vaccines to cover its entire population.”
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said Pfizer vaccine freezers were expected to reach New Zealand waters within 72 hours.
But they were not expected to be on port until New Years Day due to delays in unloading ships in Auckland. The refrigerators were expected to take about four weeks to install, most in Auckland and some shipped to Christchurch, Hipkins said.
Some of the consumables needed for the vaccination campaign had arrived, including the extra PPE and syringes, and the rest would arrive progressively over the next few months.
The director of the Auckland University Immunization Advisory Center, Dr Nikki Turner, said she felt it was appropriate for New Zealand to secure vaccine supplies, but awaiting the final results of studies on the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.
“While it is economically very challenging for us to have border controls, we currently do not have serious illnesses or deaths from this disease, a very privileged position,” Turner said.
“By the time the vaccines enter New Zealand, we will have more safety data and, in particular, additional data from monitoring systems internationally as the vaccines will be deployed elsewhere, which will be very helpful.”
