Older people and those with relevant underlying health conditions in Dunedin and Invercargill will start receiving messages from this week, inviting them to make an appointment to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Vaccination of this group – known as Group 3 in the Ministry of Health’s sequencing framework – began in the Southern district in Gore on the 17 May, and Queenstown on the 24 May.

More rural areas will join the Group 3 rollout in the coming weeks as vaccination programme team continues to work closely with general practices and rural hospitals to coordinate the delivery of the vaccine outside of urban centres.

“We have almost reached the end of our Group 2 cohort, which means most of our front-line health workers and people living in high-risk places are now protected against COVID 19,” Southern DHB COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Incident Controller, Hamish Brown says.

“This is excellent progress and an important step towards protecting our community.”

Anyone in group one or two has not yet received their vaccine is still able to book in for an appointment.

“We are now able to continue our staged approach to our Group 3 rollout across the Southern district, using an invite-only model.”

With around 100,000 in Group 3 in the Southern district, Brown emphasises this will take some time.

In the first instance, people in Group 3 in Dunedin, Invercargill, Queenstown, and Gore will receive invitations from health care providers such as Southern DHB’s vaccine rollout team, WellSouth primary health network, general practices and Māori health providers, by text message over the coming weeks. 

When people receive their invitation, they can book appointments for both doses of the vaccine online. 

An option to book appointments via an 0800 number will be provided for those who do not have internet or mobile phone access.

As the rollout progresses through Group 3 and the number of available appointments increases – in-line with the Ministry of Health’s overall programme for scaling up the rollout and preparing for Group 4 – additional approaches will be used to inform people that they are able to book an appointment.

Group 3 includes those aged 65 or over, those with a relevant underlying health condition, disabled people, pregnant people and adults in custodial settings. 

Details of the relevant underlying health conditions can be found on the Ministry of Health’s website.

Hamish says the new booking system was functioning well and commended the teams who had been working hard behind the scenes to get the system off the ground.

The system allows people to select a date, time, and location most convenient to them; book it immediately; and change appointments themselves.

It requires users to book first and second doses simultaneously, ensuring people leave the required minimum 21 days between doses.

The Southern district vaccination programme surpassed 35,000 vaccines this week.

Brown extended his thanks to partners across the Southern health system, including WellSouth, general practices, community pharmacies, Māori health providers, rural hospitals, aged residential care providers in the successful start to vaccinating the district.

Current COVID-19 vaccination clinics and information about the rollout and vaccine are available at www.southernhealth.nz/COVID-19