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The first administered isolation and quarantine worker in New Zealand to receive a Covid-19 vaccine says she feels “quite privileged and honored.”
“But for me it’s not about being the first, it’s about having the opportunity to get vaccinated,” said Lynette Faiva, who works on the Jet Park Hotel family team.
“We were in this together. We all finished at the same time, ”he told reporters at a Health Ministry briefing on Saturday.
Faiva said she wasn’t nervous about the vaccine, but maybe she was more nervous about having a cameraman there.
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“It was a little puncture. There is nothing to fear. It was really easy. “
MINISTRY OF HEALTH
Joining Chief Health Officer Dr. Ashley Bloomfield is Lynette Faiva, who works on the Jet Park Hotel family team, and then to her left, Jet Park Operations Manager Drew Leafa. Second from left is Jet Park team member Lorna Masoe, and out left is vaccinator Tracy Peterson. Faiva was the first MIQ worker to be vaccinated, Leafa was the second and Masoe the third.
The Jet Park workers were the first of some 12,000 MIQ workers to receive the Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, in the first stage of New Zealand’s vaccination campaign.
Jet Park Operations Manager Drew Leafa said he was the second person vaccinated.
There was a “different kind of atmosphere” at work, because you were going to do something special, he said. “It is a milestone for New Zealand.”
They told the rest of the country “listen guys, do it, it will help us and we will be number one in the world.”
He was due to receive his second dose of the vaccine in three weeks and was “looking forward to it.”
“I really didn’t even feel it … It’s better than when you get the flu shot,” Leafa said.
MINISTRY OF HEALTH / Supplied
Border workers were the first people in New Zealand to be vaccinated against Covid-19, in Auckland on February 20, 2021.
Lorna Masoe, who works in various areas of Jet Park and was the third worker to be vaccinated, said the vaccine was “just an extra layer of protection.”
Faiva said that nothing would change in the way they did their work. “We continue to follow our processes and protocols,” he said.
“I will do whatever it takes to make sure everyone who comes in contact with me is kept safe.”
He also had processes and protocols that he had to follow at home.
“When I go home, I can’t hug my family. First I have to get in the shower, take off all my clothes, and put them in the laundry, ”Faiva said.
“It would absolutely devastate me if I took something home with me and they would catch it.”
MINISTRY OF HEALTH / Supplied
Drew Faiva gets vaccinated in Auckland on Saturday.
His family did not know if they were going to be vaccinated. “What I’m going to do is go home and share my experience with them,” Faiva said.
“I’m going to tell them there is nothing to be afraid of, it doesn’t hurt, but if they have any questions, obviously, please contact them.”
The Director General of Health, Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, said that the vaccination of border personnel was an important step forward, “a milestone that protects those most at risk of contracting the virus and helps reduce the risk of spread to the rest of the community.
MINISTRY OF HEALTH / Supplied
Lynette Faiva is vaccinated.
“Today, we began the largest immunization program in our history, vaccinating the first of our border workforce, a critical step to protect everyone in Aotearoa,” said Bloomfield.
“This is an important first step and we will move through these first days and weeks in a measured manner to ensure that our systems and processes are robust.”
