Wellington, Nov 26 (UNI/Xinhua) The New Zealand Police and all New Zealand Defence Force staff have become the new groups required to be vaccinated in preparation for the transition to the new COVID-19 Protection Framework on December 3, it was reported on Friday.

First doses of the vaccine for workers in these organisations are required by January 17, 2022, and second doses by March 1, 2022, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood said on Friday.

These groups are added to the list of sectors covered by vaccination, which includes Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) and border work, healthcare, education and prisons.

Vaccine requirements have been extended to include constabulary, recruits and authorized officers of New Zealand Police, and the armed forces and civilian staff of the New Zealand Defence Force, Wood said in a statement.

"Vaccine mandates are very strong legal requirements that have to be carefully considered based on a clear assessment about how justifiable they are," he said, adding that a simple vaccination assessment tool will be available for businesses in mid-December to help streamline the process.

New Zealand reported 173 new Delta variant cases of Covid-19 in the community on Friday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country's current community outbreak to 7,832.

To date, 92 percent of eligible people in New Zealand have had their first dose and 85 percent are fully vaccinated, according to the Ministry of Health.
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