Hon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): The July 2020 commitment to a catch-up campaign arose out of a number of preceding incidents. Firstly, a 2014-15 sero survey showed systematically lower measles seropositivity for the birth cohort from 1980 to 1999. Secondly, in May 2017 the New Zealand National Verification Committee for measles and rubella reported there "was a need to ensure that existing significant pockets of susceptible individuals are identified and immunised" in a catch-up campaign. No action was taken by the Government of the day following either of those warnings. After the measles outbreak in 2019, efforts to address the immunisation gap in those young people finally got under way. There was a particular need to prioritise a one-dose catch-up campaign for people born between 1989 and 2004 who had an unknown MMR immunisation status. Since July 2020, 22,764 doses have been given. Because of the pandemic, a decision was made to pause the measles catch-up campaign between March and November 2021 to focus on responding to COVID-19. 