Need for speed: Why are NZ Vaccination rates the lowest ?
Globally, Five billion doses have been administered to date, and another 33.56 million are administered each day.
32.7% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 24.6% is fully vaccinated.
In all of this, where does New Zealand stand?
As reported in the BBC and Reuters, New Zealand has one of the lowest number of fully vaccinated people among the OECD - an international group of the world's most prosperous economies.
On a further deep-dive, Indian Weekender has procured the OECD global vaccine tracker data and discovered that New Zealand sits at the very bottom as a percentage of the population vaccinated, compared with Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Canada is leading the pack with 66% of its population fully vaccinated, followed by the UK at 62%, the USA at 51% and Australia at 24%.
New Zealand has fully vaccinated only 20% of its population till Monday the 23rd of August 2021, which unimaginably is even below the global average of 24.6%
If Canada, with nearly eight times the population of New Zealand, could vaccinate 66% of its people, why could we not do that?
The table showing all the data is in the picture above.
Epidemiologist Michael Baker recently told RNZ that an elimination strategy is essential in the medium term until more of the population is vaccinated.
"In many ways, we are buying time to learn more about how to manage this virus longer term."
That could move to a suppression strategy, which aims to keep the number of cases very low, later in the year or early next year, Baker said.
For the uninitiated, the elimination strategy is the architect of the level 4 lockdowns.
One noticeable thing is that the government has finally woken up and extended its outreach into the community resulting in ramping up the vaccine rollout since the recent Delta variant outbreak.
Many feel that the government should have done this by July, not after this delta variant entered the community, triggering another nationwide lockdown.
Many critics have questioned the speed of the vaccine rollout.
Speaking to the Indian Weekender, a GP commented, "Covid vaccination rates were far too low to protect New Zealand from the highly infectious Delta variant of the virus. That's why we're back in lockdown".
He even expressed concern about the current vaccination rate and hoped the government would find more innovative ways to make the vaccine available to everyone faster.
"Ideally, by now, the majority of kiwis should have been vaccinated. We have such a good window available, and we went too slow", he further added.
Another kiwi Indian small business owner lamented, "the government should have been more proactive and vaccinated the entire population during the luxury of the six-month window they had. Maybe that would have saved us from another level 4 lockdown."
The impact of these lockdowns on small business, especially in the hospitality sector are fatal.
Indian Weekender sincerely hopes that our vaccination rates improve and urges all its readers to cooperate with the government and help the team of five million overcome future lockdowns.
Credit: OECD Website
Globally, Five billion doses have been administered to date, and another 33.56 million are administered each day.
32.7% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 24.6% is fully vaccinated.
In all of this, where does New Zealand stand?
As reported in the BBC...
Globally, Five billion doses have been administered to date, and another 33.56 million are administered each day.
32.7% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 24.6% is fully vaccinated.
In all of this, where does New Zealand stand?
As reported in the BBC and Reuters, New Zealand has one of the lowest number of fully vaccinated people among the OECD - an international group of the world's most prosperous economies.
On a further deep-dive, Indian Weekender has procured the OECD global vaccine tracker data and discovered that New Zealand sits at the very bottom as a percentage of the population vaccinated, compared with Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Canada is leading the pack with 66% of its population fully vaccinated, followed by the UK at 62%, the USA at 51% and Australia at 24%.
New Zealand has fully vaccinated only 20% of its population till Monday the 23rd of August 2021, which unimaginably is even below the global average of 24.6%
If Canada, with nearly eight times the population of New Zealand, could vaccinate 66% of its people, why could we not do that?
The table showing all the data is in the picture above.
Epidemiologist Michael Baker recently told RNZ that an elimination strategy is essential in the medium term until more of the population is vaccinated.
"In many ways, we are buying time to learn more about how to manage this virus longer term."
That could move to a suppression strategy, which aims to keep the number of cases very low, later in the year or early next year, Baker said.
For the uninitiated, the elimination strategy is the architect of the level 4 lockdowns.
One noticeable thing is that the government has finally woken up and extended its outreach into the community resulting in ramping up the vaccine rollout since the recent Delta variant outbreak.
Many feel that the government should have done this by July, not after this delta variant entered the community, triggering another nationwide lockdown.
Many critics have questioned the speed of the vaccine rollout.
Speaking to the Indian Weekender, a GP commented, "Covid vaccination rates were far too low to protect New Zealand from the highly infectious Delta variant of the virus. That's why we're back in lockdown".
He even expressed concern about the current vaccination rate and hoped the government would find more innovative ways to make the vaccine available to everyone faster.
"Ideally, by now, the majority of kiwis should have been vaccinated. We have such a good window available, and we went too slow", he further added.
Another kiwi Indian small business owner lamented, "the government should have been more proactive and vaccinated the entire population during the luxury of the six-month window they had. Maybe that would have saved us from another level 4 lockdown."
The impact of these lockdowns on small business, especially in the hospitality sector are fatal.
Indian Weekender sincerely hopes that our vaccination rates improve and urges all its readers to cooperate with the government and help the team of five million overcome future lockdowns.
Credit: OECD Website
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