COVID-19: 'Super vax' clinic to open in west Auckland

The vaccination clinic will open at 6am on Monday.
The vaccination clinic will open at 6am on Monday. Photo credit: Ministry of Health

A new COVID-19 vaccination clinic is set to open in west Auckland on Monday.

The former Noel Lemming warehouse located on Catherine St, Henderson will be home to the  "super vax" clinic dubbed Te Whare Tuhono.

Te Whānau o Waipareira Trust and the Waitemata District Health Board say the location has undergone a "total refit" to ensure a seamless vaccination process for whānau.

Its first week of operation will focus on putting new systems in place, with the vaccination roll out for the general population aged 16 and over being scheduled to start in July. 

Waipareira Trust chief executive John Tamihere says the clinic is expected to churn through hundreds of inoculations every day once operating at full capacity. 

"The vaccination clinic will become as efficient as our COVID CBAC [community-based Assessment Centre] station.

"Our team was managing one swab every 57 seconds and while this is not quite the same setup, I know our team will do what they do best."

New Zealand's first large-scale dedicated COVID-19 vaccination clinic opened in south Auckland in early March. The East Tamaki clinic has been conducting a vaccine rollout to border workers' household contacts - the second phase in the county's vaccination strategy. 

Border workers were the first to be vaccinated in New Zealand in February (Group 1), followed by frontline workers and people living in high-risk settings (Group 2).

The priority populations - people aged 70+, people aged 65+, and people with underlying health conditions - are expected to start in May. The remainder of the population is expected to be vaccinated from July.

Te Whare Tuhono's opening will coincide with the launch of the Waipareira 'Vax to the Max' campaign which aims to answer questions about the vaccination process, schedule and the vaccine itself.