Covid vaccine race is on

With more than 770,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine administered in New Zealand so far, we may be doing okay — but New Zealand needs to pick up the pace if it wants to match other developed countries.

About 9 per cent of people in the Bay of Plenty and Lakes district health board areas have had their first Covid-19 vaccine dose.

Already 775,444 doses of the vaccine have been administered nationwide. Each person needs two doses and Ministry of Health projections are that about 8 million will be administered by November.

This week we reported 23,109 people have received their first dose of the vaccine and 9806 have had their second dose in the Bay of Plenty District Health Board area while 11,150 people have received the first and 5840 have had the second in the Lakes District Health Board area.

This equates to a first-dose rate of almost 9 per cent of the Bay of Plenty health board area’s population of 259,090 and more than 9 per cent of the Lakes board area’s 116,370 people.

New Zealand is doing its part — but it’s a small part. According to Our World in Data 12.5 per cent of the world population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The data shows the total number of vaccination doses administered per 100 people in the total population and, when compared with the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway and Australia, New Zealand is falling slightly behind.

New Zealand has administered 16 doses per 100 people, while Australia has done 22.64, Norway 60, Ireland 62.78 and the United Kingdom a whopping 104.21.

United Arab Emirates is leading the pack with 139.38 doses per 100 people.

New Zealand is in a lucky position it has worked hard to be in and that must be preserved, but there is still a very long way to go to vaccinate everyone who is willing.

I believe in the measure New Zealand is taking to combat Covid19. Ensuring people who return to New Zealand self-isolate is undoubtedly preventing the virus from entering our communities, spreading, and potentially causing deaths.

Two things the Ministry of Health’s vaccine rollout plan aims to do is “ensure we are prepared for future outbreaks” and “support New Zealand’s contribution to global wellbeing”.

The faster we can roll out the vaccine, the faster we can do this.

New Zealand has been lauded internationally for the way it tackled the Covid-19 crisis, I would like to see it lauded for its vaccine rollout too.