September 08, 2021
Rare flight gets vaccine to Mōtītī whānau
Residents of Mōtītī Island off the coast of Tauranga Moana have received their Covid-19 vaccines thanks to a “fly-in, drive-through” clinic coordinated by the Bay of Plenty District Health Board.
DHB Covid incident controller Trevor Richardson says the team administered 13 first doses, and it will be back next month with the second dose.
He says Monday’s flight was the first in two weeks to touch down on the island, which closed itself to visitors when New Zealand entered alert level 4 on August 17.
The board is trying to offer the vaccine to everyone in the Bay of Plenty, including vulnerable, hard-to-reach communities with high Māori populations.
The number of community cases of Covid 19 reported today was just 15 in Auckland, compared with 20 yesterday and 20 on each of the previous three days.
There are 37 cases in hospital, including six in ICU.
Over the past 24 hours there were 13,230 tests, including 8566 in Auckland, with a rolling average of 10, 855 tests.