Canterbury’s COVID-19 Vaccination Programme – update

We’ve had lots of questions about the COVID-19 vaccination and when you’ll be able to access it, so here’s an update.

In Waitaha/Canterbury we’re currently vaccinating people in Group 1, Group 2 and a small number of people in Group 3.

• Group 1 includes border and MIQ workers and their household contacts.
• Group 2 includes frontline health workers, people working and living in long-term residential care, Māori and Pacific people aged 70 and over, the people they live with and their carers.
• Group 3 includes people aged 65 and over, people with some underlying health conditions, pregnant people, and people with disabilities, older Māori and Pacific people, the people they live with and their carers.

There are more than 170,000 people in Group 3 in Canterbury. Because of this, we’re inviting people to book their vaccination appointments in stages.

We’re pleased to say we’re opening a vaccination clinic at Waikari Health Centre.

When it is your turn to book an appointment, we’ll contact you directly with instructions about how to book. This will be by text, email, letter or phone call.

If you’re in Group 3 and you haven’t been contacted to book your vaccination, you don’t need to do anything right now. We’ll contact you when it’s your turn.  Please be patient.

Note that you need 2 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. These are given at least 21 days apart. This means you will need to either have your flu vaccination 2 weeks before your first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine or 2 weeks after your second Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. 

It is still important to have the flu vaccine. The flu is a serious illness that causes hundreds of deaths each winter in New Zealand, and thousands of hospital admissions and doctor's visits.

In the meantime, you can find out more about the vaccination programme, the vaccine, and about which group you’re in here: vaccinatecanterburywestcoast.nz