More than 10,000 MMR vaccinations have been given during National Immunisation Week. Photo: Sherry Yates/123RF
The health minister says the National Immunisation Week campaign has been a success, with more than 10,000 MMR vaccinations given.
The National Public Health Service (NPHS) said about 7000 MMR doses are administered in a typical week. By day three of this week's campaign, that number was surpassed.
Health Minister Simeon Brown visited Takanini Medical Centre in Auckland on Friday afternoon.
He thanked clinical staff there for contributing to what he said was a significant national effort to increase MMR vaccination uptake.
"Yesterday, there were over 2800 MMR vaccines delivered, the previous day around 3000, and Monday and Tuesday around 2500 each for those days.
"It really shows people are heeding the message to get immunised, it's the best protection against measles.
"There has been a huge amount of effort put in by Health NZ, front-line doctor clinics, pharmacies, Hauora Māori providers, Pacific providers, up and down the country, with many of them offering pop-up clinics and trying to get as many people through the door as possible."
There had been no new measles cases reported in the past week.
The 17 reported cases are all no longer considered infectious.
But Brown said they were anticipating more cases.
"There are a large number of people isolating, and some of them have measles symptoms."
He said the NPHS was working to trace each case to identify close contacts.
He encouraged people who had symptoms to report it so they could be tested and for those who had not already to get vaccinated.
"The measles immunisation is our best and most effective tool to prevent the outbreak from further spreading."
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