Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter has confirmed there will be an independent review of the Ministry of Health's response to the measles outbreak.
Genter told Magic Talk's Ryan Bridge the review will take place "over the next few months", and will look at the minister's and ministry's responses.
She said it would "look at all the factors that could have been improved, both to prevent the situation and to ensure that next time if anything like this happens, we do the best we possibly can".
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It follows the minister's announcement on Friday that babies in Auckland aged six months and over can now receive a free vaccination, and all children under 15 will have access to vaccines.
"As the mother of a young baby myself, I cannot urge parents strongly enough to get their babies vaccinated," Genter said at Auckland's Papatoetoe High School.
"Children and babies are the most vulnerable and most likely to end up in hospital, which is why we are extending the vaccination campaign to this group."
Genter also announced that 107,520 vaccines had been distributed throughout New Zealand this week, and 155,000 additional vaccines are expected to arrive in the country over the next three months.
Children in New Zealand are currently required to receive a measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine at 15 months - 12 months in Auckland - and then at four years, to maintain the national childhood immunisation schedule.
Genter said there is going to be a change to the national schedule next year that was "already planned for the rest of the country", so 12 months will be the new normal for all children.
"Because of the record number of people who turned out to get vaccinated in the first two weeks of September, we've had to wait for the additional 107,520, which are being distributed around the country this week," Genter said.
"I think when you look back, there are always things that you think would have been better... People were operating with the best information they had at the time."
National's Associate Health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti said the Government's action measles is "too little, too late".
"The measles outbreak peaked weeks ago and the Government's self-imposed vaccine shortage meant that those who needed to be vaccinated, couldn't be."
He said the Government had plenty of warning signs, pointing to the measles outbreak in Northland last year.
In July, Newshub reported that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer offered the Government 30,000 more vaccines to help with the Northland meningitis outbreak in 2018 - but it did not take it.
"Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter is desperately scrambling to look like she's taking action on measles, but this is just too little, too late," Dr Reti said.
"If the Government has enough vaccines now, it should be encouraging all New Zealanders to get vaccinated."
Genter said she was only given the delegation in July, and her first meeting on the situation was "already in the middle of the outbreak".
It was a month later, when Genter announced the ministry had activated the National Health Coordination Centre to direct the response and act as a "single point of contact" in Wellington for district health boards (DHBs).
She acknowledged that in 2014, there was a recommendation that there should be a catch-up campaign of measles vaccinations, but the "previous government didn't make it a priority".
"I was informed that we had to do everything possible to respond to the outbreak."
As of October 18, there have been 1868 confirmed cases of measles notified across New Zealand since January 1, with most of them - 1507 - in the Auckland region.
The symptoms include a high fever, runny nose, cough and sore red eyes. A few days later, a rash starts on the face and neck, before spreading to the rest of the body.
New Zealanders over the age of 50 are considered immune as they would have been exposed to the virus as a child.
Newshub.
