COVID-19 Vaccine strategy in New Zealand

 The Government’s goal is to give New Zealand and our Pacific neighbours' access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines as early as possible. This will help us to: control the virus in the long term, protect our communities, support our economic recovery, re-open our borders. This strategy outlines our approach. It makes sure the Government can: contribute to all aspects of global vaccine development, distribution and use, invest in research that supports global efforts, builds relationships and helps New Zealand get access to a vaccine, develop the ability to manufacture a vaccine, in case we need to make sure the way we regulate the vaccines, support research and enable manufacturing is fit for purpose use purchase agreements to secure supplies of vaccines. There’s never been this level of global collaboration amongst scientists and governments in vaccine development. Vaccine companies have been sharing their data all over the world, which has sped up the research process. It has also led to a number of innovations, such as the use of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.

In New Zealand, applications for all new medicines (including vaccines) are assessed by the New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority (Medsafe). So COVID-19 vaccines can be made available as early as possible, Medsafe is streamlining its processes and assessing these vaccine applications ahead of normal applications.

Medsafe will only approve a vaccine for use in New Zealand once they are confident it complies with international standards and local requirements for quality, safety and efficacy. There is no ‘emergency use authorisation’ in New Zealand. The first group to be vaccinated are border workers, people working in managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities, and their household contacts. This is because they are most at risk of getting COVID-19. Border and MIQ workers include cleaners, nurses who do MIQ health checks, security staff, customs and border officials, airline staff, hotel workers. Household contacts include anyone over 16 who lives full-time or part-time with a border or MIQ worker. We don’t have any evidence yet that the vaccine will stop the transmission of the virus. To reduce the risk of people with a connection to the border getting COVID-19, we are offering the vaccine to both border workers and their household contacts.