Just over one thousand eligible people over 18 year olds on the island will be taking their booster shot next Tuesday 18th January, these are people who have received the first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine last year.
The Head of Public Health Grizelda Mokoia told BCN News this morning that they have already started sending out appointment notices to those in the eligible age group. These are the 1,090 people over 18 years who took both their Pfizer doses in July last year.
“We have already started sending out appointment notices yesterday. The vaccines for the booster shots will be arriving on the flight on Monday next week, and we will begin the rollout on Tuesday through to Friday” says Ms Mokoia.
The booster shots are also available to an estimated fifty people who received their two doses in New Zealand who are currently on the island. These people include essential workers with permission to enter Niue.
Ms Mokoia says that they want to encourage those who were vaccinated in New Zealand to visit the Niuefoou hospital
“If those people over 18, who received their first two doses in New Zealand could come up to the Niuefoou hospital and bring with them their vaccination information”, says Ms Mokoia.
The roll out of the booster shots will take two weeks and the Health Department is hoping to inject booster shots to around 168 people per day. They will open for the booster shots from Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays for the two weeks.
The Niue government’s vaccination programme is supported by the New Zealand Ministry of Health and will be using the same Pfizer Covid 19 vaccine for their booster shots.
For more information on vaccine boosters, please visit the New Zealand Ministry of Health website below for more information on the effectiveness of the boosters.