Ardern's bold comments about New Zealand being among the top echelon of vaccinated countries came off the back of Super Saturday, which saw 130,002 doses administered throughout the country.Of those, 39,025 were first doses and 990,977 were second doses.
In Auckland alone, nearly 9,700 doses were given throughout the day, and in doing so 89 per cent of its eligible population have had their first dose. On the other side of the coin, 47 new Covid-19 cases were announced in Auckland at yesterday's
1pm Covid-19 update. Four others were in Waikato.
What does that all mean? It's hard to know.
Down here in the Bay of Plenty, where more than 6,000 were jabbed on Saturday, the implications of mass vaccination numbers and our future is also unclear.
Ardern has previously said there would be no gap greater than one between alert levels in New Zealand, meaning the Bay of Plenty won't go down to alert level 1 until Auckland moves to level 2, which seems unlikely.
One might hypothesise that Ardern and her government haven't put a solid vaccination target in place for fear of failing to achieve it and the backlash they'd surely receive. Meanwhile, by not putting a target in place, the public doesn't know what it's working towards.
It's been made clear to us from the Government and health officials that the vaccine is the way forward (and hopefully) out of lockdown. But without any clear goals set in place, New Zealand is stuck in the passenger seat while the Government attempts to drive us out of the pandemic. There are no signs on the roadside saying how far away we are from our destination. We're driving blind.
Tomorrow
, quarantine-free travel between Australia and our South Island opens up again, so maybe a reprieve from the virus is right around the corner, hidden behind the blanket of fog.
As we approach the summer months and holiday period, one would hope our way out of the pandemic might become a little clearer.
