Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield is encouraging hesitant Kiwis who are worried about the vaccine to "get advice" they need and support the national vaccine push on the Super Saturday 'Vaxathon'.
Dr Bloomfield understands a lot of people are hesitant about the vaccine and don't have all the information to make a decision but asks people to talk to people they trust that have been vaccinated.
"I can understand why some people might be hesitant, but what I would say is we've got a really good, really safe vaccine here," Bloomfield tells the Super Saturday 'Vaxathon'.
"It's been used on hundreds of millions of people around the world and we're approaching 90 percent of Kiwis who have opted to be vaccinated.
"This is the right thing to do. Get advice, talk to someone who you trust, but a lot of people who you trust and know have been vaccinated."
Bloomfield has a simple message to New Zealanders, especially Aucklanders, who are in their eighth week of lockdown.
"The other important thing here is you'll remember early on in the pandemic when we all worked together with that first lockdown and the message out there was: 'Stay home, save lives, be kind'," he says.
"Now the message has shifted, but it's pretty similar: 'Get vaccinated, save lives, be kind'.
"You're being kind not just to yourself by protecting yourself but you are protecting others. "We've done this before, together, and we can do it again."
People are coming out in force to be vaccinated on Saturday. As of 1:40pm, 81,080 people have received a jab. 23,447 of those are first dose and 57,633 have been second dose. When breaking that down into ethnicities, 13,689 doses have been given to Māori, 3550 are Samoan and 1927 are Tongan.
