Over 2000 people receive first COVID-19 vaccine in Queenstown

Over 2000 people receive first COVID-19 vaccine in Queenstown

The Southern district COVID-19 vaccination programme surpassed 10,000 vaccinations earlier this week, nearly a quarter of which were carried out in Queenstown.

Almost 2400 people received their first COVID-19 vaccine in Queenstown this week, approximately 1200 of which were frontline health workers.

Clinics opened at Wakatipu Medical Centre and Queenstown Medical Centre on Saturday 10 April and the teams have been working hard throughout the week to vaccinate border workers and frontline health workers.

Hamish Brown, Southern DHB Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout Incident Controller, said, “This has been a fantastic collective effort and we are grateful to our partners in Queenstown, including WellSouth and the general practices. This is a huge step towards protecting our frontline health care and border workforce when the travel bubble opens on Monday.”

Most of Queenstown’s frontline healthcare workers and border workforce have now been vaccinated. The clinic will reopen in approximately three weeks to provide second dose vaccinations, and to cater for any group 1 or 2 workers who were unable to attend the first clinic.  An additional clinic may be scheduled to ensure we are best meeting the vaccination needs of the growing border workforce over the coming weeks.

A clinic for front-line health care workers will be held in Wanaka on Saturday 17 April, and further clinics will be operating in Alexandra, Cromwell, Clyde, Roxburgh and Ranfurly in the coming weeks.

ENDS