Concern over access to vaccine pass

A senior citizen advocacy group is concerned elderly people may be turned away from businesses when the traffic light system is introduced next Friday as they struggle to access vaccine passes.

Grey Power Southland office manager Stephnie De Ruyter said elderly people were feeling like their ‘‘resilience had been eroded’’ as they were unable to easily download the vaccine pass or access information around it.

‘‘Most of them are finding its like a different world to the one they grew up in,’’ she said.

As the QR code on the vaccine pass will need to be scanned by businesses for validation, the purple card given after vaccine appointments is not classified as proof of vaccination under the traffic light system.

However, downloading a pass was difficult for elderly people who didn’t have access to a smart-phone, computer or a unique e-mail address, which are required to set up a My Covid Record account, De Ruyter said.

‘‘I’ve been using the Grey Power office e-mail . . . then getting the vaccine pass printed off for them, so they can take them away to be laminated . . . it’s created a flurry in the office,’’ she said.

Additionally, she’d had some people state they did not want to a QR code associated with their medical records and had no intention of downloading the vaccine pass.

‘‘That’s just not the way they’re used to doing things.’’

Last month, Grey Power Federation president Jan Pentecost expressed concern that elderly people were experiencing delays in accessing essential Covid-19 information.

As such, De Ruyter expected more people to contact her in the coming week as they learnt the purple vaccination card could not be used to access venues.

People wanting a hard copy of the pass to be mailed to them have been told to call the Ministry of Health 0800 number.

Former Invercargill City councillor Thelma Buck, who did not have access to a computer and found the font size on smartphones too small for My Covid Record, said she waited more than 40 minutes to be told the system was down due to demand when she called the hotline on Wednesday morning.

‘‘The amount of people that have got computers don’t match the amount of people they [the Government] want to have this pass,’’ she said.

She’d thought there should have been more pre-planning regarding access to the pass.

Ministry of Health group manager of national digital services Michael Dreyer acknowledged the 0800 number had received an unprecedented volume of callers, with many experiencing delays and difficulties.

On average the 0800 number had been receiving 30,000 calls a day, with 70,000 calls made on Wednesday alone, he said.

The Ministry was working to improve delays through shifting more staff onto technical lines and extending hours of access until 8pm, which had improved wait times as of Wednesday evening, he said.

As of Friday morning, those wanting to access the pass in person could visit pharmacies that are providing Covid-19 vaccinations, he said.

The Ministry is requesting people confirm in advance that individual pharmacies can help.