Friday, March 29, 2024

MIA puts hand up for vaccine

Neal Wallace
The meat industry is asking health officials for its 25,000-strong workforce to be next in line for the covid-19 vaccine.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Meat Industry Association (MIA) chief executive Sirma Karapeeva has been talking to Ministry of Health officials and this week wrote to Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins, asking that meat workers be the next priority for vaccination.

“We understand that border workers and those running managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities are the first tranche to be vaccinated, but we want to be included in the next group to be vaccinated,” Karapeeva said.

Logistically, the meat industry will give health officials ready-access to 25,000 people at 60 sites, in which there are extensive staff records and registered nurses employed who can be trained to deliver the vaccine.

That aside, she says the cool working conditions, large number of staff on site working in close proximity to others, heightened the threat should the virus enter a plant which could then be rapidly spread into the community.

“We have our systems which can be easily adopted for what the Ministry of Health is trying to do,” she said.

The Ministry of Health was asked to comment but directed Farmers Weekly to its website page Covid-19: Getting a vaccine.

Its statement did not address the association’s request, but added that more details on the vaccine rollout will be released soon.

Information on the Ministry’s website states that border and MIQ workers will be first to get the vaccine followed by household contacts of those staff.

Vaccination of the general public is expected from July onwards.

Despite meat workers being classified as essential, there is nothing to say they will be a vaccination priority.

Karapeeva says experience overseas shows that once the virus enters a meat plant, it spreads rapidly. 

“Australia and the United States have already prioritised meat processing workers for vaccination because covid-19 spread extremely rapidly in processing plants,” she said.

“US research has found that processing plants acted as transmission vectors, accelerating the spread of the virus into the surrounding population.”

Last year several NZ meat workers were infected with the virus but were diagnosed before they were in a position to infect co-workers.

“The New Zealand red meat industry took decisive action to proactively develop and implement safety protocols, which provide guidance and a minimum standard to enable our processors to continue safely operating,” she said.

“However, there is no room for complacency. It is absolutely critical that we fortify our first line of defence, both for the safety and wellbeing of workers and communities and to safeguard the red meat sector’s significant contribution to the NZ economy, which is now heavily reliant on our export revenue.”

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