Disabled people’s COVID-19 vaccinations reach 90 percent

Published
The Social Wellbeing Agency (the Agency) has published updated analysis of COVID-19 vaccination uptake for disabled people.
Info sheet May

The Social Wellbeing Agency (the Agency) has published updated analysis of COVID-19 vaccination uptake for disabled people. The analysis builds on that published earlier this year Fact sheet (swa.govt.nz)(external link).

Key insights from the data as of 29 March 2022 include:

  • 92% of disabled people (aged 5 and over) have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 90% of disabled people have received two or more doses, compared to non-disabled (85% at least one dose, and 78% at least two).
  • 87% of Māori disabled and 89% of Pacific disabled have had at least their first dose, compared to Māori (75%) and Pacific (80%) non-disabled. 84% of Māori disabled and 85% of Pacific disabled have had two or more doses, compared to Māori (67%) and Pacific (71%) non-disabled people.
  • Auckland and Capital and Coast DHBs had the highest vaccination rates for disabled people in the country (94% and 95%, respectively) while Northland DHB had the lowest (87%). However, Northland had the largest difference between disabled and non-disabled people with 75% of non-disabled people vaccinated.
  • Disabled people living in residential care facilities have extremely high rates of having received two or more doses of the vaccine (96%).

The Info Sheet and Analysis can be found here(external link).

To carry out the analysis, the Agency needed to firstly create a disability indicator. This is because when people are vaccinated, only information necessary to match their vaccination to their health record is collected, like their name and date of birth. People are not asked whether they are disabled. Using this indicator, we matched COVID-19 vaccine data with information in the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI). Through this anonymised research, we can tell how many disabled people have been vaccinated and identify groups who may need extra support, thereby helping the Ministry of Health with its vaccine rollout.

The Social Wellbeing Agency works for the social sector. We use data and insights to help Government and the social sector improve the lives of New Zealanders.

*These results are not official statistics. They have been created for research purposes from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) which is managed by Stats NZ. For more information about the IDI please visit this(external link) page.

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