October 26 2021
Workers at businesses where vaccine passports are required will have four weeks to get the jab - or risk losing their jobs.
Kiwis keen to keep track of vaccination rates and Aucklanders wanting to know how far they are from bursting out of lockdown can now see exactly how many jabs it will take to hit their local 90 per cent target.
That's due to the Herald and Ministry of Health's new vaccination tracker.
Herald 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.
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.
The new tracker shows just how many jabs the city is away from enjoying its freedoms.
Currently, the Counties Manukau DHB is 11,020 first doses - or 2 per cent - away from having had 90 per cent of its eligible residents have at least one dose.
The Auckland DHB region has already hit the first dose milestone with 93 per cent of people single-jabbed, while the final Waitematā DHB region is also at 90 per cent.
When it comes to being double vaccinated, 74 per cent of Counties Manukau DHB have now had two doses, meaning there are 79,077 jabs left to go to hit 90 per cent.
Auckland DHB now has 81 per cent of its eligible population double-jabbed, meaning it is 37,931 doses away from 90 per cent.
Waitematā DHB is 77 per cent double-jabbed, leaving 70,253 doses to go.
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 76 per cent double jabbed and 38,036 doses away from being 90 per cent double vaccinated.
Canterbury DHB is another successful region. It now at 89 per cent single jabbed, needing just 6653 doses to hit the 90 per cent mark.
However, in a sign of how much work is still to go, the region sits at only 67 per cent double jabbed.
Given its large population that means it still has to administer 110,903 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 3204 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.
In terms of double doses, the region sits at 63 per cent double jabbed and needs to administer a further 7644 shots.
Northland, meanwhile, has had 78 per cent of its eligible residents get the first dose, leaving it needing to give out 19,639 more shots to reach 90 per cent.
To hit the 90 per cent double dose mark, health teams have to give out a further 45,663 doses.
