Medsafe, New Zealand’s medicines regulator, announced provisional approval for use of the vaccine in those aged 12 to 15 on June 21.

The Government expects to make the‘decision to use’ later this month. Until that call is made, young people under 16 won’t be given the vaccine, and likely won’t be able to access the vaccine until October.

There are around 265,000 children in the 12-15 age group in New Zealand. 

It is important that we continue to follow basic hygiene protocols - wash hands regularly, cover coughs and sneezes, stay home if unwell - as well as using the Covid Tracer app, so that we can keep our community safe.

Below is information about the Covid-19 vaccination programme in New Zealand provided by the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health.

• Science is at the forefront of the COVID-19 vaccine programme.
• Medsafe approves the use of vaccines in New Zealand.
• The Ministry of Health through District Health Boards manages the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccine programme.
• The COVID-19 vaccine stimulates your body’s immune system to produce antibodies and other proteins that will fight the virus if you’re exposed to it. It can’t give you the disease because it does not contain the virus, or a dead or inactivated virus, or anything that can affect our DNA.
• The vaccine is gone completely from your body within a few days, leaving your immune system ready for action if COVID-19 comes near you.
• In most cases vaccinations are voluntary – no one is required to have the COVID-19 vaccine. However only a vaccinated worker can be employed in some key roles, particularly Managed Isolation, Quarantine (MIQ) workers, and port and border workers.
• Global collaboration of scientists was the key to quick development of vaccines and researchers were able to use their knowledge of other coronaviruses and vaccine development to give them a head start.
• More than 700 million people have been fully vaccinated across the globe and more than 168 million individual doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been administered in the United States - Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccinations - Statistics and Research - Our World in Data.
• As at 15 June, 324,514 people in New Zealand have received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine (and 567,188 their first dose) - COVID-19 vaccines | Ministry of Health NZ.
• Medsafe is closely monitoring the safety and efficacy of the vaccine locally and globally - COVID-19 Overview of Vaccine Reports.
• In clinical trials, common side effects (eg pain or swelling at injection site, feeling tired or fatigued, headache, muscle aches, chills, joint pain, fever, redness at injection site, nausea) were reported in 1% - 10% of people.
• Again in clinical trials, uncommon side effects (eg enlarged lymph nodes, feeling unwell, pain in limb, insomnia, itching at injection site) were reported in 0.1% - 1% of people.
• Suspected “Adverse events following immunisations” are reported to the Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring and Medsafe publishes these online.
• In New Zealand as at 8 May, of the 362,686 doses administered, 102 reports were received of adverse reactions that were ‘serious’ and 2,531 ‘non-serious’.

Click here to check out the Unite Against Covid-19 website for further information.

Additional information about New Zealand's vaccination programme can be found in the documents attached at the bottom of this article.