A vaccinologist says allowing pharmacists to vaccinate children under 5 years' old will help improve immunisation rates in pockets of the country where they are dangerously low.
Pharmacists can now vaccinate babies and preschoolers from six weeks old, including for hepatitis B, tetanus, diphtheria, and polio.
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora says the rule change is designed to boost falling childhood vaccination rates, which experts say are at their lowest point in years.
Helen Petousis-Harris, from the University of Auckland, says this move can go part, but not all of the way, to addressing these critically low rates.
Petousis-Harris spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.
