Counties Manukau District Health Board (DHB) has reached 90 percent first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, bringing Auckland closer to moving to the traffic light system.
Data released by the Ministry of Health earlier on Sunday showed the DHB had to vaccinate just 192 more eligible people to reach the 90 percent first dose target.
Counties Manukau was the final of Auckland's three DHBs that needed to reach this threshold. Once 90 percent of eligible people in all three DHBs in the city are fully vaccinated, Auckland will move to the traffic light system.
COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says this is a key milestone on the path to opening Auckland up.
"Auckland is leading the way with vaccinations, and it is exciting to see Counties Manukau reach that all-important 90 percent first dose figure," he says.
"Today we are an important step closer to Auckland transitioning to the new traffic light system which means restrictions will ease once each DHB is 90 percent second dose.
"There's been a huge amount of targeted work going on by local health providers to make vaccines easily accessible and to address hesitancy. It's really pleasing to see that work paying off."
Auckland DHB is at 95 percent first doses and 87 percent second doses, and Waitematā DHB is at 92 percent first and 83 percent second. Counties Manukau is now at 90 percent first doses and 80 percent second doses.
Hipkins says getting all three DHBs up to 90 percent fully vaccinated is within reach, and at current daily rates the city could be there within three weeks - so long as people return to get their second dose.
"Everyone wants restrictions eased as soon as possible. We need to keep going and get those final second doses so we can ease restrictions with high rates of vaccination and high levels of confidence."
In the past seven days, Auckland residents were administered an average of 1743 first doses and 6175 doses each day.
Once the 90 percent double-dose threshold is met in all three Auckland DHBs, the city as a whole will move into 'Red' in the new traffic light system.
Under Red, hospitality venues will be able to open with up to 100 people who are fully vaccinated, and gatherings of up to 100 fully vaccinated people will be allowed to attend events such as weddings and funerals.
Events could go ahead with up to 100 vaccinated people, gyms could open with up to 100 vaccinated people, and education - schools and universities - could reopen.
If a business chooses not to use vaccine certificates, only contactless hospitality would be allowed, and only 10 unvaccinated people could gather for the likes of weddings and funerals.
Close contact businesses such as gyms would not be allowed to open without vaccine certificates, and tertiary education could only go ahead online if they choose not to use vaccine certificates.
