A man was vaccinated against Covid-19 up to 10 times in one day on behalf of other people, prompting an investigation by the Ministry of Health.
It is believed the man, who is understood to have visited several vaccination centres, was paid for the jabs.
In response to questions from Stuff, Astrid Koornneef, the Ministry of Health’s Covid-19 vaccine and immunisation programme group manager, said the ministry was “aware of the issue”.
“We are taking this matter very seriously. We are very concerned about this situation and are working with the appropriate agencies.
“If you know of someone who has had more vaccine doses than recommended they should seek clinical advice as soon as practicable.”
The ministry would not confirm where the incident took place.
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Auckland University professor Nikki Turner, medical director of the Immunisation Advisory Centre, said there was no data on the safety of receiving that many vaccines in one day.
“The Comirnaty vaccine, the one we’re using, is designed based on early clinical data that works out what’s the right amount to give a good immune response and to give a good safety profile, and we do know that a high dose vaccine creates more side effects.
“So this is definitely not recommended … we have no evidence as to what side effects somebody would have with this amount of vaccine.
“This is not a safe thing to do, this is putting that person at risk.”
Stuff revealed in October that police had been warned people may be assuming other’s identities and getting Covid-19 vaccinations on their behalf.
A Ministry of Health spokesperson told Stuff at the time that staff at the Covid-19 vaccine and immunisation programme had advised police of the scam.
“Medical practitioners operate in a high-trust environment and rely on people to act in good faith to share information accurately to assist with their treatment.
“To assume another person's identity and receive a medical treatment is dangerous.
“This puts at risk the person who receives a vaccination under an assumed identity and the person whose health record will show they have been vaccinated when they have not.”
A person who received a vaccination under someone else’s name would not have the vaccination on their own personal health record.
The spokesperson said strengthening the identification process before someone got a vaccination may risk reducing participation and “work directly against our goal of vaccinating as many people as possible”.
“People who do not have a form of photo identification are disproportionately people in vulnerable groups – homeless or transient, the elderly, the young, people with disabilities – and we don’t want to create barriers to their vaccination.”
