Southern district COVID-19 vaccine centres open appointments this weekend

The Southern district is calling for anyone in Groups 1, 2, 3 or aged 60 and over to take advantage of vaccine appointments this weekend, 7-8 August.

Yesterday, Minister Chris Hipkins announced invitations to those aged 55 and over would start from Friday 6 August, five days ahead of scheduled.

“As part of our scaling up of the programme we have started offering weekend appointments at our vaccination centres in Dunedin and Invercargill,” Southern District Health Board COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Incident Controller Hamish Brown said.

“We have availability at the Meridian Mall in Dunedin this Saturday and the Civic Theatre in Invercargill on Saturday and Sunday, and we strongly urge anyone in those priority groups to book their appointment if they haven’t already, as we open to the next cohort.”

Those aged 55 and over are also eligible for these weekend clinics.

Weekend appointments are also available at several of the 67 general practices and pharmacies offering the vaccine across the district.

Those eligible can book online through BookMyVaccine.nz – the new online national booking system - and the COVID Vaccination Healthline 0800 28 29 26. The Vaccination Healthline is open from 8 AM to 8 PM, seven days a week.

Latest data show that, in the Southern District, 80 percent of the over 65 population and 77 percent of the over 60 population have either been vaccinated or have an appointment booked.

“Thanks to the efforts of our providers, the programme has already been able to significantly scale up its capacity and our delivery across the district,” Brown said.

“We have been really pleased with the positive response and rapid uptake by the public.”

To date, about 145,000 vaccines have been delivered across the district. Yesterday, over 5000 vaccines were administered in Southern, the largest daily output for the district and of any DHB.

Brown extended his thanks to vaccinators and administrators across the health system, including the public health nursing team and those in the mass vaccination clinics, general practices, rural hospitals, pharmacies, Māori health providers, aged residential care and our mental health and disability providers for the programme’s success so far.

Media enquiries: SDHB Communications, communications@southerndhb.govt.nz.

ENDS