NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Analysis: Is New Zealand's vaccine rollout on track?

By Chris McDowall
Data journalist·NZ Herald·
8 Apr, 2021 12:25 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Chris Bishop revealed the "leaked" information saying it shows that New Zealand is 300,000 vaccines behind schedule. Video / Parliament TV

After a long period of silence, the Government is releasing detailed information about progress on Covid-19 vaccinations. But the data seems to show a big discrepancy between early predicted targets and actual numbers. Data specialist Chris McDowall checks the figures.

Yesterday afternoon the Ministry of Health released its target="_blank">vaccine dashboard. The underlying data provides the first detailed view into how the vaccination rollout is going.

At midnight on Tuesday, 90,286 doses of the Pfizer vaccine had been administered and entered into the Covid-19 Immunisation Register. This number can be further split into 71,013 first doses and 19,273 second doses.

The dashboard's most intriguing element is a chart comparing the planned number of vaccinations against the number of doses actually administered. The Herald has reproduced the chart below with data supplied by the ministry.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The chart above suggests the rollout is proceeding according to plan. Each week the number of doses administered appears very close to the forecast.

However, the dashboard's planned vaccinations dotted line differs greatly from a March 17 Ministry of Health chart titled Illustration of volumes and timing of vaccination rollout. The earlier chart suggested tens of thousands of more vaccinations would be occuring each week from mid-March.

It is unclear why these rollout plan documents differ so greatly.

Ambiguity over forecast numbers was further complicated last night by a Ministry of Health planning document leaked to the National Party.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The current dashboard only shows retrospective targets. It would be helpful if the ministry would release clear future targets for the coming weeks to clarify the situation.

The rest of the data released yesterday offers welcome insights into who is receiving the vaccine and how the rollout is progressing.

This bar chart demonstrates how many people have received the vaccine each day since the rollout began in late February. It suggests that the number of people vaccinated from week-to-week was relatively static for the first month of the rollout.

Vaccinations ramped up during the second half of March as some people started receiving the second dose. Easter interrupted this upward trend. At yesterday's media update Bloomfield indicated the ministry expected significantly higher vaccination numbers for next week's data release.

This map shows how many people have received a first and second dose of the Pfizer vaccine by district health Bbard. The size of the outer circle indicates how many people have received their first dose and the smaller inner circle represents the number of people who are fully vaccinated.

Vaccinations are not evenly distributed across health boards. The greatest number of vaccinations are in the health boards that cover Auckland, Waikato and the Greater Wellington area. These districts are where the highest numbers of border and MIQ workers live. As the rollout's focus shifts to high-risk frontline workers we should expect to see more vaccinations in other parts of the country.

The West Coast DHB has not vaccinated anyone. Whanganui and MidCentral have administered fewer than 200 doses.

Note that in some cases a person may travel to a different DHB to get vaccinated.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The table above shows that Asian people have the highest rate of vaccinations and Māori have the lowest uptake to date.

The dashboard provides a summary of vaccination doses administered by gender.

Nearly 10,000 more females (40,066) have received a first dose of the vaccine than males (30,853). Despite this, more males (10,061) have received a second dose than females (9,172). The reason for these differences are unclear.

During today media update question time, Bloomfield offered some insights into how rollout plan targets are set.

"The DHBs supplied their rolling plans through to the end of April and that's the basis of the figures provided yesterday. And [the day before] we also received plans from the end of April through to the end of June about how they are continuing to scale up."

The Herald has requested an overview of these plans, including the Government's targets for the next three months.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from New Zealand

Premium
Letters to the Editor

Letters: Drugs may have a place but they’re not the foundation of a healthy society

11 Jul 05:03 PM
Opinion

Opportunities in America for NZ red meat

11 Jul 05:01 PM
New Zealand

Morning quiz: What is a penny-farthing?

11 Jul 05:00 PM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

Premium
Letters: Drugs may have a place but they’re not the foundation of a healthy society

Letters: Drugs may have a place but they’re not the foundation of a healthy society

11 Jul 05:03 PM

OPINION: Road cones, a Buddhist statue, shoplifting and bringing back the moa.

Opportunities in America for NZ red meat

Opportunities in America for NZ red meat

11 Jul 05:01 PM
Morning quiz: What is a penny-farthing?

Morning quiz: What is a penny-farthing?

11 Jul 05:00 PM
Premium
Gisborne's Grey St protests ongoing one year on as review looms

Gisborne's Grey St protests ongoing one year on as review looms

11 Jul 05:00 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP