A medical professor is criticising the Government's COVID-19 vaccine rollout suggesting young people shouldn't be vaccinated last.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed the vaccines will be administered by age groups with the aim to have every eligible Kiwi vaccinated by the end of the year.
From July 28, anyone over the age of 60 will be eligible for a vaccine. Bookings for the next age band - those over 55 - will open on August 11.
Those aged over 45 will likely be invited to book a vaccine from mid-late August, those over 35 from mid-late September, while everyone else will have to wait until October.
But University of Auckland medical professor Des Gorman told The AM Show leaving young people until last might not be the best approach.
"Most of the vaccine-hesitant are young and if we say, 'We don't need to vaccinate you until the end of the year', what are we telling them? 'You're at such low risk and this is not a big deal for you?' Now I can't see that encouraging vaccination, to be honest."
Gorman said the vaccine rollout has a "lack of planning" and execution.
"What we've been hearing is the Government thinking out loud and wishing out loud... They've been getting confused with what they would like, what they think should happen and what's actually happening.
Gorman said getting the rollout right is key to the country's health and economic recovery.
"We need this to be a success, we need to be vaccinated, our health and livelihood and our economic wellbeing depend on us being vaccinated."
He said the Government's target to vaccinate most of the population by the end of the year is "not particularly aspirational for a country of five million".
"I would be surprised if they do as well as that, I hope they do - I would love to be wrong.
"Wouldn't it be wonderful if at the end of the year we are saying, "Isn't it fantastic they've vaccinated the country', but I would be betting against it."
Ardern said one of the reasons the vaccinations will be paced out is because we are getting doses of the jab as we go. New Zealand will receive the bulk of the supply by the end of October.
"We've landed on age bands, because it is a simple approach most commonly used overseas and because the risk of COVID increases as you get older," she said.
"Once your age band is announced, there is no cut-off. You can be vaccinated from that time on, at any time. But the sooner the better."
University of Otago public health professor Nick Wilson told Newshub staggering the rollout by age is a "very good" approach.
"To take that approach of going down the age groups is a very good one - it's worked very well in the UK. So I think this is looking good for the rest of the vaccine rollout."
But Wilson said he's concerned by a lack of transparency over the rollout.
"Particularly for group one and two we still don't have a good idea what the coverage is in those critical border workers and their household contacts."
The Ministry of Health has previously admitted it's not sure how many border workers there actually are - although it insisted in April 90 percent were vaccinated.
Earlier in June, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins also revealed "data issues" mean the Ministry of Health doesn't know how many household contacts of border workers are vaccinated either.
An estimated 50,000 people have been categorised in Group 1B, which are household members of border and MIQ workers. Ministry of Health figures show around 50 percent have not even had their first shot.
Hipkins believes the uptake in high-risk groups could be higher, but there's been a data issue which the Ministry of Health is trying to fix.
"For example, if a household contact of a border worker goes in and gets vaccinated and does not say that they are a household contact, it may not be recorded against them," he told reporters on Tuesday.
