Following the successful Super Saturday event (October 16) 86.2 per cent of the Southern district’s eligible population (over 12 years of age) has now received at least one dose, and 68.5 per cent are fully vaccinated.

The picture looks even better for the Queenstown Lakes District, where 94 per cent of eligible people have received one dose, and 72 per cent have been fully vaccinated.

Nearly 10,000 doses were delivered across the Southern District on Super Saturday.

“The event was a huge success, with over 75 vaccination sites operating across the district... with many offering music, kai and giveaways,” the Southern District Health Board (SDHB) said in a statement.

By the end of Super Saturday Southern had delivered 9,706 vaccinations, 2885 first doses and 6,825 second doses. This brings Southern's total numbers to 449,725 vaccinations.

Southern Covid-19 vaccination programme lead Hamish Brown expressed his thanks to the teams across the district who worked hard to pull out all the stops on the national day of vaccination, and to the councils, volunteer groups and businesses who offered their support.

Ninety-four per cent of the Queenstown Lakes eligible population has received one dose of the vaccine. PHOTO: Reuters

“We were really pleased with the turnout and the atmosphere was incredible, with the public coming together as a community to get protected against Covid-19,” he said.

“This was a significant step towards our goal of reaching at least 90 per cent vaccinated by Christmas, with about 11,000 people still to go to hit this target.”

Hamish said this was not the end of the programme and there were many more opportunities to get vaccinated.

“We still have over 110 providers across the district operating weekly schedules, are undertaking workplace vaccinations and have outreach teams going into smaller communities,” he said.

Hamish said while the current target was at least 90 per cent of the population vaccinated by Christmas, the more people who are vaccinated, the better.

Bookings are still available through bookmyvaccine.nz or over the phone by calling 0800 28 29 26.

If you have any questions or concerns about the vaccine, call the free helpline 0800 28 29 26 to talk to a health professional.

Read more: Vaccine rates: Our towns revealed