October 27 2021
There are 74 Covid cases in the community today, as the Government reveals a tentative plan for primary schoolchildren to return to classes on November 15.
Auckland has moved to within 10,000 jabs of getting 90 per cent of all eligible residents first-dose Covid vaccinated in each of its District Health Board regions.
Two of the city's three DHBs have already hit the 90 per cent rate, with the last remaining one being Counties Manukau DHB.
Counties Manukau now has 88 per cent of its eligible residents having had a first dose of the Pfizer Covid vaccine.
About 1100 were given out yesterday, meaning a further 9900 first doses need to be administered to have the DHB get to 90 per cent of eligible residents vaccinated with at least one dose.
Meanwhile, vaccination is slowly moving forward in the nation's least vaccinated area of Northland DHB with about 800 first and second doses given out yesterday.
It comes as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last week announced the country will move away from its alert levels and into a new traffic light system to manage Covid once every health board region has 90 per cent of its eligible population double-dose vaccinated.
Auckland could move into the new traffic light system even faster.
That's partly because it has higher vaccination rates and a hard border preventing people from freely travelling in and out of the city and spreading Covid - and partly as a reward to Aucklanders enduring a long lockdown, Ardern said.
Now Herald readers can track the nation's progress with a new vaccination tracker.
Readers can interact with the tracker to see how many first and second doses each district health board region needs to reach the milestone of having 90 per cent of their eligible residents vaccinated.
And the tracker shows Counties Manukau - in addition to needing to give out more first doses - also has to administer 76,210 second doses to have 90 per cent of its eligible residents double-dosed.
The DHB currently has 74 per cent of its eligible population double-dosed.
The Auckland DHB region, meanwhile, has already hit the first dose milestone with 93 per cent of people single-jabbed.
It's double dose vaccination level sits at 81 per cent, meaning it is 35,029 doses away from 90 per cent.
Close to 3000 second dose vaccinations were given out in the DHB region yesterday.
The final Waitematā DHB region is also at 90 per cent first doses, and now sits at 77 per cent double-jabbed.
That means 66,246 second doses need to be given out to hit 90 per cent, after about 4000 second doses were administered yesterday.
Elsewhere in the nation, Wellington's Capital and Coast DHB is the only other health board to hit the 90 per cent first dose mark.
It is now 77 per cent double jabbed and 35,431 doses away from being 90 per cent double vaccinated, after about 2500 second doses were given out yesterday.
Canterbury DHB is another successful region. It now at 89 per cent single jabbed, needing just 5087 doses to hit the 90 per cent mark, after about 1500 first doses were administered yesterday.
However, in a sign of how much work is still to go, the region sits at only 68 per cent double jabbed, after about 5000 second doses were put in arms yesterday.
Given its large population that means it still has to administer 105,906 jabs to get to 90 per cent double vaccinated - that is the largest number of doses still needing to be handed out in any DHB across the country.
Northland and the West Coast DHBs are the two regions furthest behind in percentage terms.
The West Coast DHB needs to give out just 2995 vaccines to reach the 90 per cent first dose mark - yet that equates to still needing to equate 21 per cent of its eligible residents, or one-in-five.
Yesterday, about 200 first doses were given out in the region.
In terms of double doses, the West Coast DHB sits at 64 per cent double jabbed and needs to administer a further 7382 shots.
Mat Te huruhuru Youth Leadership Group Jab & Grab Covid-19 vaccination drive in Manukau. Photo / Alex Burton
Health teams gave out just under 300 second doses in the area yesterday.
Northland DHB, meanwhile, has had 78 per cent of its eligible residents get the first dose, leaving it needing to give out 19,075 more shots to reach 90 per cent.
About 500 first doses were given out in the area yesterday.
To hit the 90 per cent double dose mark, health teams have to give out a further 44,783 doses, after less than 1000 second doses were administered yesterday.
