Thank you to those who responded to our vaccine mandate emails and for the many thoughtful comments. Briefly, around 40% of members responded. 85% are in support of the vaccine mandate, and 97% are or are planning to get fully vaccinated.
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Attached is some advice from the MoH on the Covid vaccine dose gap. Briefly, the recommended gap was originally three weeks. Based on evidence that a longer gap was better, the gap was then increased to six weeks. Now that the delta wave is underway, the need for rapid protection becomes more important, and the recommended gap has returned to three weeks.
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The Ministry advises those who’ve had their first dose and are scheduled for a second six weeks after to ‘consider’ bringing their second vaccine dose forward accordingly.
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The MoH is organising a vaccine promotion day termed ‘super Saturday’ on Saturday, October 16th to promote vaccination.
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Clinics may experience an increased demand for vaccines on that day and the days following.
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We suggest that Clinics consider opportunistic COVID-19 vaccination – taking the opportunity to ask patients if they’ve been vaccinated, and addressing any concerns an unvaccinated person might have.
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A large percentage of the unvaccinated, including young patients, those with no GP, and deprived communities, will be high users of urgent care clinics, and we’ve encouraged the MoH to publicise the urgent care clinic option for vaccination.
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We’d like to know what percentage of urgent care clinics are offering COVID-19 vaccinations and would appreciate it if one person from each clinic could complete this quick poll.
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See MoH latest advice below: Extension of the exemption in Auckland, Waikato.
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Using the best available mask is vital; please refer to our earlier advice on double masking and mask reuse in case of an emergency shortage.
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David Gollogly, Jasmine Mackay, Richard Chen, Kelvin Ward
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Pandemic Response Subcommittee
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The Ministry of Health maintains the exemption to the fit testing requirements for Auckland and Waikato general practice and urgent care clinics, and community based assessment centres for access to Ministry of Health centralised supply of N95/P2 particulate respirators while operating in Alert Level 3 settings.
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Please note, those general practice and urgent care clinics operating outside of the Auckland and Waikato region currently will not have access to N95/P2 particulate respirators from the Ministry of Health’s centralised supply until fit testing has been completed or the situation across Alert Levels change.
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This exemption notes the risk the Ministry of Health can not predict the protection an ill fitted N95/P2 will afford. A particulate respirator itself does not have a high filtration efficiency, unless a tight seal is achieved.
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Those that are undertaking swabbing can still be confident they are protected if they continue to use a visor and a Type IIR/Level 2 disposable procedure mask.
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The exemption period may be extended pending decisions on Alert Level status for Auckland and Waikato and how things progress.
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We will not be undertaking a push order. We note the regular ordering cycles across providers through the centralised portal are consistent and therefore we will not be standing up an urgent distribution system over the weekend. Orders received today will be distributed early next week. This reflects the current logistics constraints broadly across the country.
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Fit checking is a minimum requirement under this exemption. To fit check the particulate respirator users can either perform a positive-pressure or negative-pressure seal check:
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- A positive-pressure check means covering the respirator surface on a filtering facepiece, usually by using your clean hands, and trying to breathe out. If slight pressure builds up, that means air isn’t leaking around the edges of the respirator.
- A negative-pressure check involves covering the respirator surface on a filtering facepiece, typically using your clean hands and trying to breathe in. If no air enters, the seal is tight.
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