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Auckland, May 15, 2021
Walk-in vaccinations are being paused at two Auckland Covid-19 Vaccination Centres.
The decision came into effect on Thursday, May 13, 2021.
The sites at Mt Wellington and Highbrook have seen high demand for walk-in vaccinations since they began trialling the model ten days ago.
However, with both sites reaching capacity and increasing concerns about traffic flow and lengthy queues, the Northern Region Health Coordination Centre, which is managing the vaccination rollout on behalf of the northern region DHBs, has decided to halt the trial.
Increasing unregistered people
NRHCC Vaccination Programme Lead Matt Hannant said that Walk-in demand has been high at these sites but described it as “not a bad problem.”
“But we want people to have the best experience possible and hence we are taking a moment to reflect and assess what changes may need to be made before allowing walk-ins back at those sites. “We acknowledge that there have been some issues around queues and traffic congestion at these sites and we apologise for any inconvenience,” he said.
According to Mr Hannant, this is the most significant logistical exercise undertaken by the health sector in New Zealand.
“We are continuing to take learnings from our operations every day. We want this to be an easy process for people and our teams are working incredibly hard to try to make this happen
Highbrook and Mt Wellington will continue to take booked appointments,” he said.
Prioritising booked appointments
All other community vaccination centres across metro Auckland, Henderson, Birkenhead, Otara, Manurewa, CBD and Westgate (which opened today), will continue to prioritise booked appointments as normal.
While the changes took effect, those with booked appointments have been asked to visit the Centres. Further information can be obtained on 0800-282926.
