More than 130,000 people got a COVID-19 vaccine during Super Saturday, the Ministry of Health has confirmed.
Hundreds of vaccination centres across the country extended their hours to give the vaccine to as many people as possible and a televised Vaxathon event featured many Kiwi stars encouraging people to get the jab.
New Zealand's previous daily record of 93,000 jabs was crushed on Saturday afternoon, and confirmed numbers show a total of 130,002 people received a vaccine by the time the event had finished.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says it was great to see the number of Kiwis who turned out to get a vaccine.
"People across the motu embraced Super Saturday like their communities' lives depended on it. It was inspiring to witness as we know the COVID-19 vaccine is key to our efforts to control the virus," he says.
"Auckland did incredibly well with its biggest ever vaccination day and I congratulate and thank everyone there who stepped forward to protect themselves, their whānau and their community - 41,081 people were vaccinated there yesterday, including 9039 first doses and 32,042 second doses."
Eighty-nine percent of Auckland's eligible population has had at least their first dose of the vaccine and is "tantalisingly close" to reaching 90 percent, Dr Bloomfield says.
At the start of Saturday, 29,399 more people in Auckland had to get their first dose to reach the 90 percent mark. Following Super Saturday, it's now just a further 20,360 people. Dr Bloomfield says Auckland averaged about 4000 first doses each day, so the city is on track to reach that milestone this week.
"I continue to urge everyone in Auckland who hasn't received their first vaccination to get vaccinated as soon as possible. And remember, we're not stopping at 90 percent - the higher, the better for everyone," Dr Bloomfield says.
The total number of vaccines given so far is now 3,565,822 first doses and 2,748,360 second doses. This means 85 percent of the eligible population has had one dose and 65 percent is fully vaccinated.
