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Waitematā, Canterbury DHBs hit 90% vaccination milestone

December 3, 2021

Waitematā and Canterbury DHBs have become the third and fourth districts in New Zealand to reach the 90 per cent fully vaccinated milestone.

Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay announced the achievement at Friday’s media conference.

The two DHBs follow Auckland and Capital and Coast in reaching 90 per cent.

McElnay also said the average across metro Auckland DHBs had reached 90 per cent fully vaccinated.

“That’s fantastic progress,” she remarked.

“Tāmaki Makaurau has bore the brunt of the outbreak and its people have been the vanguard of Aotearoa’s vaccination efforts.”

McElnay said Aucklanders and Auckland health providers could share the credit for reaching increasing vaccination milestones.

Southern DHB are also on track to join the 90 per cent club soon — they’re on 89 per cent, and Counties Manukau is nearing the 90 per cent milestone, with 87 per cent already double vaccinated.


In the week of Super Saturday, in mid-October, 82 per cent of Kiwis had had their first dose, and 56 per cent had had their second.

Fast forward to Friday December 3 and 93 per cent of Kiwis have now had their first dose. While, incredibly, 87 per cent of the country is double vaccinated.

That increase is even more dramatic among Māori. In the week of Super Saturday, just 37 per cent of Māori were fully vaccinated. That number has now nearly doubled in six weeks, with 70 per cent of Māori having received both doses.

Under the Government’s new traffic light system, the country will shift between levels — Red, Orange and Green — depending on a range of factors including vaccination coverage, the capacity of the health system, testing, contact tracing and Covid transmission.

Vaccine passes will be used in all three settings and will provide greater freedoms when used. There will be no limits on gathering numbers for places that use the passes under the Orange and Green settings.

Vaccine passes are now available through My Covid Record.

While aiming for that milestone, there continue to be calls from experts to ensure the vaccine rollout is equitable.

Getting vaccinated for Covid-19 reduces someone’s risk of contracting the virus in the first place, or experiencing it severely.

All data is from the Ministry of Health.

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