{"id":114632,"date":"2021-02-22T12:08:44","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T04:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=114632"},"modified":"2021-02-22T12:08:48","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T04:08:48","slug":"covid-19-new-zealand-says-vaccinations-small-step-in-long-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=114632","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19: New Zealand says  vaccinations \u2018small step in long journey\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bssnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/New-Zealand-says-Covid-vaccinations-small-step-in-long-journey.jpg\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.bssnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/New-Zealand-says-Covid-vaccinations-small-step-in-long-journey.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>WELLINGTON, Feb 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; New Zealand launched its Covid-19 vaccination programme over the weekend but warned the initial rollout was only a small step in the long battle against the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Pacific nation has been widely praised for its handling of the coronavirus and has seen just 26 deaths in a population of five million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The vaccine drive begins just days after authorities lifted a coronavirus lockdown in Auckland which confined most of the city\u2019s residents to their homes for three days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the start of what we might call a new chapter but we still have a long way to go,\u201d said Ashley Bloomfield, the country\u2019s director-general of health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The rollout marked a \u201csmall but important step in a long journey\u201d, he added, with the initial focus on high risk citizens and those returning from overseas, along with border and quarantine workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trans-Tasman neighbour Australia is to begin a similar rollout of Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccines to frontline workers from Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both nations have closed borders to almost all international travellers, severely hurting the tourism industry which is a key pillar of the economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the vaccine program, the New Zealand government has said it was unlikely overseas tourists would be allowed to return this year. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WELLINGTON, Feb 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; New Zealand launched its Covid-19 vaccination programme over the weekend but warned the initial rollout was only a small step in the long battle against the pandemic. The Pacific nation has been widely praised for its handling of the coronavirus and has seen just 26 deaths in a population of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":114633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[215],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114632"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/114633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}