A man who reportedly took up to ten doses of Covid vaccine on the same day is under investigation by New Zealand authorities. The suspicion is that he was paid to immunize himself in place of other people, according to The New Zealand Herald.
Astrid Koornneef, responsible for the country’s vaccination program, said the Ministry of Health is aware of the problem and takes the matter very seriously. “We are very concerned about this situation and are working with the appropriate agencies,” he said.
To take the doses, the man visited different vaccination posts. The ministry, however, did not say where the episode took place.
“Assuming someone else’s identity and receiving medical treatment is dangerous,” Koornneef said. “This puts at risk the person who received the vaccine under another identity and the person whose health record shows they were vaccinated but not.”
In New Zealand, it is not necessary to present a photo ID at the time of vaccination. The reason for this is to avoid creating barriers to the immunization of people in situations of social vulnerability, a ministry spokesman told the local Stuff website.
Since August, New Zealand has faced constant outbreaks of the Delta variant. In early October, the government announced that it would abandon the strategy of completely eliminating Covid-19 from the territory and would start living with the virus.
Considered a successful case in containing the pandemic, the country was one of the few to have zeroed in the number of infections last year.
Since the start of the pandemic, New Zealand has had more than 12,000 confirmed cases of the disease and 46 deaths, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University. More than 76% of the population has completed the vaccine cycle.
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