Jacinda Ardern had a message on Thursday afternoon for those who may be hesitant to get the Covid-19 vaccine: "Do it for our kids."
Ardern said if she could pick one reason to be vaccinated, from "a whole list of them", it would be that.
"There’s a whole group of children that cannot be vaccinated right now. They’re not eligible and yet we are increasingly seeing Covid-19 reach our children," she said.
"Now unless every adult who’s eligible to be vaccinated is, they risk passing it on to a child. So if you don’t feel like doing it for yourself, do it for our kids."
According to Ministry of Health data , 166 of the 996 cases in the community outbreak of the Delta variant are children aged 0 to 9, while are 235 aged 10 to 19.
Medsafe approved the Pfizer vaccine for children aged 12 to 15 in June.
The vaccine has not been approved to be given to those under 12 in New Zealand.
Everyone aged 12 or over is now eligible for the vaccine and has been able to book their vaccinations since September 1.
As of September 14, a total of 264,320 people aged 12 to 19 have received their first dose. A total of 27,995 are fully vaccinated.
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