Friday 5: 14 January 2022

Kia ora koutou,

Join us in celebrating the first Friday 5 for the year! Happy new year and welcome back everyone.

1. Ka pai! To our wonderful WDHB and Pacific Health team colleagues as they were the first DHB to surpass the 90% dose milestone for Pacific Peoples to be fully vaccinated. The programme priority continues to focus on our equity target of 90% fully vaccinated across our Māori and Pasifika communities

2. Thank you to all the kaimahi at the Airport Park’N’Ride who returned to the site on January 1st to support the surge capacity for booster vaccinations. We have received some wonderful feedback:

“Hey Guys, went to AKL airport for booster shots today. Wow you guys were so good- very efficient- very professional. Thank you so much- we felt really special”

3. From Monday 17 January, 5-11 year olds will be eligible for the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. Our Tāmaki, Mount Wellington and Orewa sites had a soft launch today vaccinating some of our tamariki! Well done to everyone involved in the planning and implementation of this roll out

4. Our in-home vaccination programme is continuing and one of our clients has taken the time to provide feedback on the process and our wonderful customer experience team!

“I’d like to take the opportunity to thank your entire team for the incredible effort you’ve put in to support our clients. I’ve heard first-hand how patient and gifted your teams are at putting clients and families at ease and overcoming some very challenging situations. And from my perspective, you’ve all been a pleasure to work with 😊”

5. A new drive-through site on the Northshore is due to go live Monday 17 January, the Eventfinda Stadium is and staff are prepping as we speak! Thank you to all the teams involved for their hard mahi to get this site up and ready for go live!

And finally, some wonderful feedback from some clients who had been recently vaccinated at Unichem Te Atatu South

“I am writing wishing to share a little good news about an experience on getting vaccinated. My family member is a high needs autistic (non verbal) adult who just received his first dose of the vaccine today.

I would like to commend the wonderful staff at Unichem Te Atatu South (Auckland) for their understanding, patience, and efficiency in helping vaccinate my family member. They accommodated us by allowed him to stay in the car and the nurse was able to quicky give him the shot. We had been quite concerned as he has extreme sensitivities to touch so getting a syringe near him would be near impossible and would need a lot of preparation. Whilst it may have been much later for him to get his first dose, as cliché as it is, it’s better late than never to protect himself and others around him. I remember during the initial vaccine rollout in August just as we entered Level 4 lockdown, Dr Bloomfeld had shared a small piece from a parent that mentioned to him her child was also of special needs and had been vaccinated as their local healthcare provider had created a comfortable environment for them to do so. That story Dr Bloomfeld shared had stuck with me all this time and definitely gave me the encouragement I needed to get my family member vaccinated. Although I cannot predict how my family member’s second vaccination will go but from today’s experience, I can confidently say we have learnt how to improve the experience for next time and looking forward to him being one step closer to being able to enjoy his day to day life and get back to a certain level of normality.

I would like to conclude this email by sincerely thanking everyone for their continuous efforts in keeping the team of 5 million safe”.

This week we also say Haere ra to one of our amazing colleagues who leave the Vaxx whanau this week Sharon Alabastro! Sharon has been involved in all aspects for the NRHCC Covid response from the early days supporting testing through to looking after all the vaccination sites. She will be very missed but we wish her all the best in her exciting new role!

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Ngā mihi

The Vaxx team