It’s ridiculous that the Book My Vaccine website will not allow people to book in for booster vaccinations four months after a person’s second dose, and still doesn’t allow parents to book in for kids’ vaccinations, says National’s COVID-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop.

“The Government must get ready for the transmission of omicron in the community by ensuring we have enough supply of rapid tests in New Zealand and making them available to vaccinated and unvaccinated people through pharmacies and supermarkets, says National’s COVID-19 Response Spokesperson Chris Bishop.

The government must urgently move to allow people vaccinated four months ago to get their third booster jab, bring forward the timeline for kids’ vaccines, and stop the perverse ban on rapid antigen testing, says National COVID-19 Response Spokesperson Chris Bishop.

People who want to get a third ‘booster’ shot of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine shouldn’t have to wait until early January to do so, National’s Covid-19 Response spokesperson, Chris Bishop says.

It’s good news that the Government has reduced the standard gap between the second dose and booster shots of the Pfizer vaccine from six months to four months, National’s COVID-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

The Government should immediately allow fully vaccinated travellers from Australia to come to New Zealand and skip MIQ before Christmas in light of Chris Hipkins’ admission in Parliament today that there has not been a single positive Covid case in fully vaccinated travellers from Australia from August 23 to December 6, National’s Covid-19 Spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

New Zealand should be seriously considering following the lead of the UK and Australia and bring forward booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine for New Zealand, National’s COVID-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

Under questioning in the House today Chris Hipkins has finally revealed that Ministry of Health officials’ initial advice was that Wellington, Hawke’s Bay and the whole of the South should have entered the Traffic Light Framework at Green, National’s spokesperson for Covid-19 Response Chris Bishop says.

The Government should front up and be honest about which regions Health officials said could be in “Green” at the start of the Traffic Light Framework, National’s COVID-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop says.