The man in charge of this weekend's mass vaccination event in south Auckland says there shouldn't be a repeat of Friday's delays.
People eager to get their first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine showed up early to the Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT), getting in the way of people who showed up on time and clogging up the queue.
There were reports of people waiting an hour before they could even get on the bus to the Vodafone Events Centre, where the vaccines are being administered.
"We resolved that really quickly," northern region mass vaccination boss Alex Pimm told Newshub on Friday evening.
"We've got some additional staff working through the weekend to ensure everybody moves through as quickly as possible. We've got no queues at the moment and we intend to keep it that way all weekend."
The team met on Friday night to go over what worked and what didn't to ensure Saturday and Sunday go smoothly - 11,500 people are booked in over the two days. About 4700 got theirs on Friday.
"I'm incredibly proud of how today's gone. I think it's been a great success," Pimm said. "I think we're on track."
A dozen vaccinators put doses in people's arms at a rate of one every 90 seconds each. Once a patient has received their jab, they have to wait 20 minutes to ensure there are no serious side effects before they're back on the bus to MIT.
"We encourage them to make sure they turn up on their appointment time," said Pimm. We've got free public transport running… if people are able to use public transport, please do. Otherwise think about carpooling."
Trains have been cancelled for the weekend, but Auckland Transport has put on extra buses.
Everyone who got their first dose this weekend will be back for a second between September 10, 11 and 12.
