COVID-19 Immunisation Register (CIR) privacy statement

Information about your COVID-19 immunisation/s will be recorded in our COVID Immunisation Register (CIR). The CIR is used to help control COVID-19 by providing information about immunisation coverage across the population, and to keep a record of the immunisations you have received or choose not to receive.

Information about your immunisations will be kept up-to-date, even if you change your doctor or go to a health service in another part of the country.

The following details will be recorded:

• your name, date of birth, gender, and health number (National Health Index or NHI)
• your address and contact details
• details about the vaccination/s you receive
• any reactions you have to the vaccine
• confirmation of priority category for vaccination eg. phase 1a.

The CIR will also record if you decide not to get a COVID-19 vaccine, including if there are medical reasons why you don’t, or if you do not want to be contacted further by the vaccination programme.

By law, all health services are required to keep complete and accurate records. To have the vaccine, we need to collect your information and record it on the CIR, as it is the clinical record of your immunisation treatment. This means there is no ability to opt out.

If you wish to view your own COVID-19 vaccination records you can create a My Covid Record account . We may send you a prompt by email or text to make sure you know how to access this service.

To correct your information (such as contact details), email information@health.govt.nz

If you need formal proof of your COVID-19 vaccination for international travel, you can request a vaccination letter from the Ministry of Health by filling out the proof of COVID-19 vaccination form.

Requests are prioritised based on your overseas travel departure date. If information is missing or incomplete, we won't be able to process your request.

If you have any questions about vaccination letters, email vaccinestatus@health.govt.nz

Requesting proof of vaccination for overseas travel

Only those people with a role in managing this vaccine programme and related administration can see, add or change the information held in the CIR. Contact tracers can see vaccine information in the CIR to help them identify a person’s risk of exposure to the virus from a close contact. Access to the CIR is limited to those with logon access rights, and all access is recorded and can be audited.

These people may include those involved in administering the vaccine, people who conduct contact tracing, and health professionals who work with you, such as your family doctor, nurse or midwife. Everyone who accesses the CIR is trained to keep the information safe.

Only those people with a role in managing this vaccine programme and related administration can see, add or change the information held in the CIR. Contact tracers can see vaccine information in the CIR to help them identify a person’s risk of exposure to the virus from a close contact. Access to the CIR is limited to those with logon access rights, and all access is recorded and can be audited.

These people may include those involved in administering the vaccine, people who conduct contact tracing, and health professionals who work with you, such as your family doctor, nurse or midwife. Everyone who accesses the CIR is trained to keep the information safe.

The information collected as part of the vaccination process may be used for:

• managing your health
• keeping you and others safe
• planning and funding health services
• carrying out authorised research
• training health care professionals
• preparing and publishing statistics
• improving government services.

Some information, such as information about reactions to the vaccine, will be shared with other organisations who provide health services.

Information may also be used for statistical analysis and research purposes, in line with usual Ministry of Health processes and when permitted by the Privacy Act and Health Information Privacy Code.

If we need to use CIR information for other purposes, we will have this reviewed by the Chief Privacy Officer at the Ministry of Health and discuss it with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to make sure your privacy interests are fully considered.

Vaccine data

Our vaccination dashboard shows a snapshot of our vaccination progress. Data includes:

• number of people who have received their vaccination so far
• cumulative vaccinations by DHB
• cumulative vaccinations by ethnicity.

Vaccine data

If you're an employer, you should consult the guidance issued by WorkSafe about assessing whether a specific role needs to be performed by a vaccinated worker before asking for proof of vaccination from your employees.

If you are an employee, your employer may ask for proof of vaccination. In most situations providing this information is voluntary (the exception being if you are required to be vaccinated as part of an Order, eg, Border workers).

If you work at the border and are required to be tested under the Required Testing Order, your name and details will be registered on the Border Workforce Testing Register and your vaccination status will be visible to your employer. This is to ensure that only vaccinated workers perform certain roles at the border under the Vaccinations Order.

Border Workforce Testing Register >

Vaccinations Order >

The CIR operates on a Salesforce platform, which is hosted on Amazon Web Services servers in Sydney, Australia.

The information will be held in compliance with our standards. It will be kept for a minimum period of 10 years from the date of your last interaction with the CIR, and longer as clinically determined to be appropriate (in case future medical care providers wish to refer back to these records about you).

If you have questions about your privacy, get in touch with:

Email covid-19.privacy@health.govt.nz