Covid-19 vaccination

Part of a series of ‘festival days’ – where the Pacific community is vaccinated together in a welcoming environment – today’s event was the first in the region to be held in a place of worship.

Capital & Coast DHB worked with Tū Ora Compass Health PHO and the church community on the event last week.

“It was wonderful to see so many of our older Pacific members there today, and we look forward to more events like this supporting better health outcomes for our vulnerable communities,” said Tū Ora Pacific Director of Health Henrietta Hunkin-Tagaloa.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday urged countries to supply more vaccines to the global fair-access scheme Covax.

The international distribution of Covid vaccines remains vastly uneven.

Since the first vaccines were approved in December, wealthier countries have bought up most of the supply.

Many are racing to vaccinate as much of their population as possible.

Medics with fang stickers on their scrubs are offering Pfizer shots to everyone who visits the 14th-century Bran Castle in central Romania.

It is part of a government drive to encourage more Romanians to get jabbed.

Some believe the castle inspired the vampire's lair in Bram Stoker's iconic novel Dracula.

Romania has recorded just over a million infections since the pandemic began, and nearly 29,000 deaths.

The Director General of Health, Leausa Dr Take Naseri, said the age group of 18 years and older would be vaccinated, but not those aged 85 and older.

Leausa said people with terminal illnesses such as cancer would also not be vaccinated.

The frontline workers in the health sector and people involved in the handling of repatriated flights would be the first to receive the vaccine, but Leausa said those who did not consent to receive a dose of the vaccine would be removed from the frontline.

His jab was televised on Sunday in order to help boost confidence in the vaccine rollout across Australia.

Vaccinations officially begin on Monday and at least 60,000 doses are expected to be administered next week.

On Saturday, small crowds of anti-vaccination demonstrators gathered to protest against the launch.

Mr Morrison was part of a small group of people vaccinated on Sunday along with some frontline health workers and care home residents. Australia's chief nurse Professor Alison McMillan and Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly were also immunised.

In a video call with frontline workers, Prince William offered his congratulations and described the programme as "tremendous" saying it didn't "just happen".

Staff joked they had been "thinking and dreaming" of vaccines all day and night with some describing working seven-day weeks.

The duke also praised his grandparents, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, for stepping up and getting the vaccine.

Its own vaccine Sputnik V, which was registered in August, is being used.

Developers say it is 95 percent effective and causes no major side effects, but it is still undergoing mass testing.

Thousands of people have already registered to get the first of two jabs over the weekend, but it is unclear how much Russia can manufacture.

Producers are only expected to make 2 million doses of the vaccine by the end of the year.