on 11 november 2021, southern district health board member ilka beekhuis resigned after she used her title to oppose countdown's vaccine mandate on employees and voted against a dhb motion calling for a commitment to at least 90% vaccination rates across communities. on 17 november, 1,309 unvaccinated employees of the country's 20 district health boards' 80,000–strong work force had been stood down for not meeting the government's vaccine mandate. 463 of the stood-down employees are nurses while 723 others include senior medical officers, midwives and registered medical officers. in early august 2022, radio new zealand reported that the college of midwives chief executive alison eddy had written a letter to the health minister andrew little and the covid-19 response minister chris hipkins in may 2022 urging them to reconsider lifting the ban on unvaccinated midwives in order to address the staffing shortage in the healthcare sector. in addition, other health leaders including midwifery employee representation & advisory service (meras) co-leader caroline conroy and university of auckland vaccinologist helen petousis-harris expressed support for reviewing the vaccine mandate requirement for healthcare workers. on 2 august, national party covid-19 spokesperson chris bishop called on the government to lift its vaccine mandate requirement for nurses and health workers in order to address the staffing shortage in the healthcare sector. by 21 december 2022, the new zealand herald reported that 447 teachers in new zealand had resigned or been dismissed for refusing to receive the covid-19 vaccine in the period between november 2021 and 20 april 2022; citing figures released by the ministry of education under the official information act.