A COVID-19 vaccination clinic will open in Fiordland within the next fortnight to cater to frontline health workers, any border workers and their household contacts. 

The clinic will be located in Te Anau from April 13-16, with opening times to be confirmed.  

Further clinics for frontline health workers in rural areas of the Southern district will be progressively opened from mid-April, and more information will be provided on these as it becomes available.  

The Southern District Health Board began the roll out of its vaccination programme last week, with clinics in Murihiku Marae in Invercargill and Wakari Hospital Dunedin. 

They have already given the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to more than 500 health and port workers and their families, including workers at South Port, Bluff, and NZAS Tiwai Point Aluminum Smelter, which has an international berth.

But Te Anau and Queenstown, which opens next week, will be the first outside of urban centres. 

"This is a further important milestone in our rollout of the COVID vaccine,” says Hamish Brown, who is leading the rollout of the vaccine programme for Southern DHB. 

"There are a number of logistical challenges involved in delivering the vaccine, and we sincerely appreciate the efforts of the health providers in these centres."

Fiordland Medical Practice and WellSouth Primary Health Network will assist in running the clinic.

Brown says about 20,000 frontline workers will eventually be inoculated across Southland and Otago. 

The SDHB will vaccinate the general population across the second half of the year, starting in July, according to Ministry of Health guidelines. 

It will scale up to administering 3500 shots a day, with about 575,000 in total needed to cover two doses from everyone in the SDHB region aged 16 and over. 

But first will be the frontline workers. 

 Andrew Swanson Dobbs, CEO, WellSouth Primary Health Network, says: "The roll out of the vaccine programme in Southern has begun very well and this is an important next step. 

"It marks the start of the vaccine being more widely available in locations across the district via the general practice network and we are pleased to work in partnership with the DHB on this."

Bookings are essential for all clinics. They are not for the general public. 

To schedule a vaccine appointment, frontline health workers are asked to complete a web form. It can also be found on the Southern Health website – www.southernhealth.nz/COVID-19. Click on the vaccination tab for frontline health workers to locate the form. 

Border workers and their household contacts will be contacted through border employers.