August 04, 2022
Data switch to step up vaccination effort
More than 233,000 New Zealanders will be added to the list of those eligible for their COVID-19 vaccinations through a technical change that kicks in next week.
Nick Chamberlain, the director of the National Public Health Service, Te Whatu Ora, says from Monday health system using data from 2021 rather than will be used to calculate vaccination rates.
The data, which counts people who have used health services over a 12-month period, can be used to plan mobile vaccination clinics, pop-up vaccinations and other events in areas where uptake may be low.
The total number of people aged over 12 who’ve had at least two vaccinations has risen from 3.63 million at the beginning of December 2021, to 3.98 million as of August 1.
Dr Chamberlain says other initiatives include a $3.52m investment to increase the data capability of Māori providers as well as the recent rollout of Te Whātoro, a set of mobile vaccination vans run by iwi health providers in Northland.
There were 6362 new cases of Covid-19 reported today and 14 deaths.