A Labour MP says this weekend's mass COVID-19 vaccination event in south Auckland will make "big inroads" into getting the community immunised.
Aucklanders attending the event on Friday complained it was an "absolute shambles" with reports of delays, but the northern region mass vaccination boss promised those would be resolved on Saturday.
More than 16,000 people were booked to get their COVID-19 jab over at the Vodafone Events Centre at the weekend.
Labour MP Greg O'Connor told Magic Talk's Sunday Cafe the mass vaccination event would "certainly make big inroads into south Auckland".
"More importantly, I went around to every [vaccination] centre in my electorate in Ōhāriu over the last week - the word 'gear up'... that's exactly what's happening. You watch - now that the vaccines are here, now that we can actually set up these systems… [it's a] pretty exciting time and everyone's really looking forward to it."
But National MP David Bennett believes not everything is going to plan. He told Magic Talk the overall vaccine rollout should have been "a lot bigger and earlier".
"New Zealand is not vaccinated - we should be much further down the vaccination track. This is not a delivery Government - they've never been able to deliver anything and the vaccine has shown that as well."
He said the slow rollout had put New Zealanders at risk.
"Most people in the health sector now are talking about much higher vaccination rates - you can see what's happening in Australia. If you don't get that vaccination underway you put your population at risk."
ACT leader David Seymour earlier this week said the Prime Minister owes New Zealanders an apology for the slow vaccine rollout that has seen New Zealand at the bottom of the OECD - but Jacinda Ardern had no plans to apologise.
"Right at the beginning of the year we said that this would be the year of the vaccine campaign; that this would be the largest undertaking of our health system around a vaccination that we have ever seen, and so far we are running according to our plans," Ardern said on Wednesday.
"I'm really proud of the work our health professionals have done. Those who have been vaccinated know how well they are doing on the ground.
"Our focus now has to be - right through to the end of the year - getting as many people vaccinated as possible."
She said that her ask of "the team of 5 million is simple - get vaccinated".
"You don't need to look far to see why this is so important."
Ardern added the Delta variant of COVID-19 was spreading throughout the world.
"Even nations with high rates of vaccination are seeing daily cases in the tens of thousands and hospitalisations and deaths.
"For the vaccine to be as effective as possible, we need everyone to have it."
