Modelling showed even with high vaccination rates opening up could still lead to deaths and cases on a scale New Zealand is yet to experience. He asked colleagues in Ireland how they had got such high vaccination rates and the answer was "scared sh*tless" because they had seen so many deaths. ''The higher vaccination rates we can get, the easier it will become to manage these outbreaks and the less we'll have to rely on lockdowns.'' "It will be difficult to avoid large scale health impacts - that could include tens of thousands of hospitalisations and potentially thousands of deaths. Foran said people were receptive and it already had a vaccination rate in the mid 80 per cent and just over 90 per cent with one dose.

Source: New Zealand Herald September 15, 2021 18:16 UTC