(Reuters) – New Zealand kicked off the official rollout of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday, while Australia finalized plans to begin vaccinations on Monday, a new phase in tackling the virus affecting both countries. largely under control.
A small group of medical professionals were injected into Auckland on Friday ahead of the wider rollout that officially began with border personnel and so-called Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) workers on Saturday, officials said.
In Australia, hotel quarantine and health workers will also be the first cohort to be vaccinated at 16 Pfizer vaccination centers across the country, alongside older Australians in retirement homes.
“Today, we are launching the largest immunization program in our history, by vaccinating the first of our frontier workers, a critical step in protecting everyone in Aotearoa,” New Zealand Health Minister Ashley Bloomfield told reporters in Auckland, saying used the country’s native Maori name. .
“We will measure through these first days and weeks to ensure that our systems and processes are solid.”
New Zealand expects the nationwide rollout for the country’s population of 5 million to take a full year, while Australia aims to vaccinate its 25 million residents by October.
Despite tens of thousands of tests, no new COVID-19 infections have been reported in the communities of both countries in the past 24 hours, officials said.
Both countries ended rapid local lockdowns this week after a cluster emerged from a Melbourne quarantine hotel and as New Zealand authorities are investigating how a strain of a highly transmissible British variety was found in three members of an Auckland family.
The two countries are in the top 10 worldwide in a COVID-19 performance index for their successful response to the pandemic.
Australia has recorded just under 29,000 cases and 909 deaths, while New Zealand has recorded just 26 deaths out of 2,350 cases.
Reporting by Paulina Duran in Sydney; Editing by Lincoln Feast.