Funded flu vaccine for under-fives starts today, two years earlier than planned
Last Updated on September 1, 2026
Children aged six months up until their fifth birthday can now get a funded flu vaccine, after Pharmac brought forward a decision that was originally due to take effect in 2027.
The change, welcomed by Associate Health Minister David Seymour and Health Minister Simeon Brown in a release from Beehive.govt.nz, means more than 260,000 young children are now eligible for the free vaccine. It follows swiftly on from Pharmac’s own announcement last week that it would fund the vaccine for this age group, but only from 2027. According to Seymour, patient advocates said that timeline wasn’t good enough, and Pharmac reversed course within days.
“Pharmac voice is listened to once again as Pharmac extend funding criteria for the flu vaccine from today,” Seymour said. He described the reversal as evidence of “the culture we are building at Pharmac,” with the agency “funding the medicines that Kiwis need, based on the feedback of Kiwis in need.”
A tough flu season
The funding change lands in the middle of what Brown called the worst influenza season New Zealand has seen in a decade. He said hospitals, emergency departments and primary care are all under pressure, with high levels of flu-related illness circulating.
Brown said total winter hospitalisations are roughly in line with previous years, but the timing has been different: cases have arrived in a concentrated burst rather than spread across the season, which is what is straining hospitals and health services right now.
Young children are particularly vulnerable, he said, describing them as more likely than most people realise to become seriously unwell and end up in hospital, with the youngest infants at greatest risk. They are also efficient spreaders of the virus.
“A child picks it up at daycare, brings it home, and within days the whole household is unwell, with parents taking time off work to care for them or ending up sick themselves,” Brown said. That flows on to hospitals, he said, where emergency departments and paediatric wards can fill up at the same time as staff themselves are off sick with the flu.
What the vaccine funding change means for families
Brown said the evidence for vaccinating children aged six months to four years is clear: it lowers their chance of catching the flu, reduces the risk of hospitalisation, and helps cut transmission to others around them.
“Bringing this funding forward means parents do not have to wait until next year to get that protection,” he said, encouraging parents of unvaccinated young children to talk to their GP or pharmacy.
For Auckland families, where daycare centres and schools are common flu transmission points during winter, the earlier funding removes a cost barrier for parents who might otherwise have delayed vaccination or paid for it privately. With flu activity already high across the country, health authorities are effectively urging parents to act now rather than wait for the illness to pass through their household first.
Source: Beehive.govt.nz.
