The Bay of Plenty has reached the 90 per cent fully vaccinated milestone.
The Ministry of Health 1pm media statement on Tuesday said the Bay of Plenty DHB had reached 90 per cent for second doses. However Ministry of Health data also showed as of Tuesday, 921 doses needed to be administered before the district reached the 90 per cent fully vaccinated target.
A Ministry of Health spokesperson said percentages were rounded to the nearest whole number, so may show 90 per cent with a small number of doses still remaining.
Te Puna Ora o Mataatua Charitable Trust chief executive Dr Chris Tooley said reaching 90 per cent was "a wonderful achievement".
He especially acknowledged the health workforce who had "given up and sacrificed so much to test and vaccinate after hours and weekends and strange hours of the day".
But he was concerned about the double vaccination rate for Māori, which was still tracking "quite low".
"Until Māori reach 90 per cent, we won't be celebrating too much," he said.
"That's our driver especially when the Māori population, in particular, is the young population and a lot of the cohort is still between 5 and 11 that are yet to receive any type of vaccination so we will have quite a vulnerable profile among Māori in the Bay.
"Once they hit their 90 per cent then we might be able to take a deep breath but until then we're going to keep charging."
Seventy-six per cent of Māori were fully vaccinated, and 84 per cent had received one dose as of 11.59pm on January 3, Ministry of Health data showed.
Bay of Plenty District Health Board Covid-19 medical officer of health Dr Phil Shoemack said reaching the 90 per cent target was "certainly great news" but there was still a need to "keep going".
"The 90 per cent target has been a wonderful rallying point for communities and the health service but it is not 100 per cent," Shoemack told the Bay of Plenty Times.
"Every single extra person who gets vaccinated protects themselves and those around them.
"It could not have happened sooner. If it had happened sooner, there might have been fewer Covid-19 cases in this recent outbreak."
Shoemack said since the Delta strain had entered New Zealand, there had been 350 cases of Covid-19 across the Bay of Plenty and Lakes District Health Boards.
"We need to remember that 1 in 10 people aged 12 and older in the Bay of Plenty are still not vaccinated."
The next step would be to focus on vaccinating children in the 5- to 12-year-old age bracket, Shoemack said.
Te Manu Toroa chief executive Pat Cook was also concerned about the Māori vaccination rate.
"It's the same story across most of New Zealand. We may have hit the wider target but 90 per cent is still is a long way off for Māori in the Bay of Plenty."
Cook said overall it had been an "incredible effort" from a large number of people and organisations who pulled together for an unprecedented mass vaccination programme.
"The world has never seen anything like it."
Cook claimed Te Manu Toroa was the first mobile vaccination clinic and the first GP clinic in Tauranga to pass the compliance requirements and roll out vaccines to the community and regular patient population.
"It's been an amazing effort from our team.
"What we've discovered is that as a team, we can pivot well to provide health support in a time of crisis.
"It's been a real-world learning situation which health providers can only benefit from in the future."
Cook said the mobile vaccination team had faced verbal abuses, which were "quite challenging and scary at times", but it was only from "a tiny minority".
"The overwhelming majority of people were very supportive."
Te Manu Toroa was continuing to work with the DHB, iwi, community groups and partners to provide vaccination services for its patient population at its city clinic, and the general public through its mobile vaccination team, Cook said.
Tauranga MP Simon Bridges said it was "great news" the Bay had reached 90 per cent.
"With some hesitant pockets out there this is no small achievement and everyone deserves their share of [the] credit."
"That said, in the early stages it was more of a stroll-out than a roll-out, and now we've reached this milestone we deserve to reap some benefits such as [the] ability to travel and open up," he said.
"And we also need to get onto booster shots as a matter of urgency. Let's not go slow again as the Government did."
A Ministry of Health spokesperson said while it was great the Bay of Plenty had joined other regions with a 90 per cent fully vaccinated population, it was not an end goal for the Covid-19 vaccination programme.
"It is important that all regions reach this milestone and that as many people as possible throughout Aotearoa become fully vaccinated to better protect our communities from all variants of Covid-19."
The spokesperson said data on the impact of the Omicron variant on vaccination was still emerging. However, the latest research from Pfizer indicated a booster dose would strengthen antibody levels "considerably" from what was seen with two doses against Omicron.
"This emerging data is reassuring for our Covid-19 vaccine programme, and potentially highlights the importance of the booster rollout."
Everyone who had their second dose more than six months ago could get their booster.
From January 5, this six-month interval changes to four months for walk-in appointments. From January 17, people will be able to book their booster through the book my vaccine website.