WELLINGTON, May 8 (Xinhua) -- A nationwide telecommunication outage is slowing the COVID-19 vaccination process in New Zealand, said the Ministry of Health in a statement on Saturday.

The telecommunications service provider Vodafone has informed the ministry of a nationwide outage which is affecting the digital services at some COVID-19 vaccination centres across the country, said the ministry.

"This means people queuing have to fill out forms manually which is adding some time to the process," said the ministry in the statement.

"We are aware of an issue causing intermittent loss of data for some customers on fixed and mobile connections, and were investigating," said Vodafone New Zealand in a statement on its social media account on Saturday.

There were long queues at two COVID-19 vaccination centres in Auckland on Friday too.

Matt Hannant, director of the Auckland COVID-19 vaccine program, apologized to the public after people gave up waiting for the jab due to long queues and disorganisation.

"We're really sorry for any inconvenience that people have experienced. This is the biggest logistical exercise that's ever been undertaken by the healthcare system," said Hannant.

According to the New Zealand COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan, border and managed isolation and quarantine facilities workers, high-risk frontline workers and people living in high-risk places are in the priority groups currently being vaccinated.

The latest data from the ministry showed that 304,900 doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine have been administrated in New Zealand as of May 4. Enditem

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