Covid-19 Delta outbreak: Which DHB has the most unvaccinated staff?

Capital and Coast District Health Board has the largest number of staff yet to be vaccinated, according to 2020 employment figures.

Yesterday, TAS - an organisation representing DHBs - released nationwide DHB staff vaccination data which indicated roughly 4000 health workers have not had one dose of the vaccine.

As at Monday, about 95 per cent of clinical and non-clinical staff had had at least one vaccination while 90 per cent were fully vaccinated. That left 5 per cent of the roughly 80,000-strong workforce, or about 4000 staffers yet to get dotted.

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By Tuesday, all DHB staff must have had at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine, barring those with a medical exemption, or they will be stood down.

DHB spokeswoman Rosemary Clements said DHBs were having ongoing discussions with unvaccinated staff.

DHBs were confident any impacts on healthcare provision following the stand-down of any unvaccinated staff would be managed appropriately, she said.

The lowest first dose vaccination levels were in the Bay of Plenty and the West Coast at 93 per cent. The highest were in South Canterbury and the three Auckland DHBs at about 98 per cent.

There are still thousands of health workers who haven't been vaccinated as the mandate looms. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

However, based on DHB employment data from December 2020, Capital and Coast had the most unvaccinated staff with 357, closely followed by Canterbury which had 354.

The figures were calculated by using the number of employees at the various DHBs and their respective proportion of unvaccinated staff.

It should be noted, these figures will not be exact given the employment data is not up to date. However, it does provide a useful indication of where larger numbers of unvaccinated DHB staff reside.

Northland:

One dose: 94 per cent
Two doses: 87.86 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 201

Waitematā

One dose: 98.1 per cent
Two doses: 95.7 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 145

Auckland

One dose: 98.6 per cent
Two doses: 95.4 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 150

Counties Manukau

One dose: 97.34 per cent
Two doses: 94.71 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 213

Waikato

One dose: 96 per cent
Two doses: 88 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 307

Bay of Plenty

One dose: 93 per cent
Two doses: 88 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 234

Lakes

One dose: 95.9 per cent
Two doses: 94.5 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 61

Tairāwhiti

One dose: 95 per cent
Two doses: 86 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 44

Taranaki

One dose: 94 per cent
Two doses: 85 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 108

Hawke's Bay

One dose: 93 per cent
Two doses: 89 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 212

Whanganui

One dose: 94.3 per cent
Two doses: 88.3 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 58

MidCentral

One dose: 97 per cent
Two doses: 91 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 80

Wairarapa

One dose: 96 per cent
Two doses: 92 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 22

Capital & Coast

One dose: 94 per cent
Two doses: 91 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 357

Hutt Valley

One dose: 96 per cent
Two doses: 91 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 81

Nelson/Marlborough

One dose: 94 per cent
Two doses: 89 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 157

Canterbury

One dose: 96.5 per cent
Two doses: 93 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 354

West Coast

One dose: 93 per cent
Two doses: 87.3 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 57

South Canterbury

One dose: 98 per cent
Two doses: 93 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 15

Southern

One dose: 95 per cent
Two doses: 92 per cent
Unvaccinated staff: 231

While DHBs like West Coast had lower rates of first dose vaccination (93 per cent) than Auckland (98.6 per cent), their respective number of employees - 820 and 10,716 - meant more Auckland staff were unvaccinated than those at West Coast.

Waitematā DHB had the most fully vaccinated workforce at 96 per cent, with Auckland, Counties Manukau and Lakes just behind on 95 per cent.

It comes after a requirement for DHBs to know the vaccination status of staff who could come into contact with Covid-19 appears to have been scrapped due to complications with data collection and the recent health workforce vaccination mandate.

In June, a DHB guidance document was released regarding vaccination which stated all Covid-19 stream work should be undertaken by vaccinated staff.

Alongside that guidance, it was established by TAS that DHBs had until August 31 to ensure any staff who could be exposed to the virus were fully vaccinated.

"DHBs are expected to know by 31 August 2021 the vaccination status of all workers identified as being in a Covid-19 workstream, and will be taking the necessary steps now to identify and record their Covid-19 workstreams, and identify the vaccination status of workers in those workstreams," a TAS spokesperson said in July.

However, the NZ Herald understands this requirement has been abandoned - partly due to DHBs finding it too difficult to record the necessary data as well as the eventual mandate which comes into force from November 15.

Earlier this week, the Herald requested data from all DHBs on overall staff vaccination levels, as well as those for Covid-19 workstream staff.

All DHBs which responded to the request referred the Herald to TAS, which supplied this most recent vaccination data yesterday. It did not contain information regarding Covid-19 workstream staff.