An 11-year-old who caught Covid-19 last year says she is "happy" to have been able to get vaccinated at last yesterday.
Her mother now wants to encourage other parents to have their children vaccinated because "your kids are the most important thing in your life".
The vaccine for 5-11-year olds became available on Monday, including walk-ins, drive-throughs, hauora providers, community pharmacies and general practices.
Nearly 700 children in the Bay of Plenty District Health Board area were vaccinated on the first day.
Shakyra Bachop-Mauger got her jab on day two, eight weeks after catching Covid-19 and having to isolate from her family at home in Pāpāmoa for two weeks.
Her mother Joanne Gates believes she caught it after "a fleeting hug" with an unvaccinated adult, who did not know they had the virus, at a family dinner.
Gates said she was "really relieved" Shakyra was now vaccinated especially since she had contracted Covid before and could get it again.
Shakyra also had an underlying heart condition and would soon head back to school.
Getting vaccinated as soon as she became eligible meant Gates could "worry less".
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In Gates' view: "These little ones are super spreaders so once they go back to school, if they catch it they're going to spread it to everybody and I think they are still very vulnerable people.
"I thought it was really important for her health but also for the health of others around her.
"And also it's the right thing to do. It is a community responsibility to actually take care of each other."
She had "great faith" that the vaccination worked.
"We lived with her with Covid and didn't catch it because we were double-vaccinated.
"Just go and get it done. Your kids are the most important thing in your life."
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Shakyra said getting the vaccine went "okay" and she felt it "a little bit".
She said having Covid last year had been upsetting because she couldn't see her older sisters. She thought it was hay fever because she just had a runny nose and sneezed a lot.
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Advertise with NZME."And then once I found out I had Covid I had a wee cough."
When Shakyra got Covid, Gates feared her daughter would get really sick because of her heart condition.
"For at least three or four days, I lived kind of with that fear, which was hard."
She tried not to let her concern show.
"I didn't want her to get worried or upset.
"I'm just proud that Shakyra is brave and I think it gives her a sense of value going out and getting vaccinated too for others."
More than 20 clinics are offering the paediatric dose in the Bay of Plenty. They are listed on the Healthpoint website and Covid19.govt.nz.
