18 October 2021, 1:27 AM
A focused campaign to increase vaccination rates across Southland's rural regions is planned for next month.
Nearly 10,000 doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine were delivered across the Southern District Health Board area, which stretches from Invercargill to Dunedin, Queenstown Lakes and Waitaki on Super Saturday.
But Southland District and Gore are still lagging behind other areas of the south and New Zealand on uptake.
As of 6am on Sunday, 54% of the eligible population in Southland District were fully vaccinated with both doses, while 23% have had only one dose as 23% remain unvaccinated.
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For Gore district, 62% are fully vaccinated, while 16% have had only one dose and 22% remain unvaccinated. In Invercargill, the numbers are similar with 62% fully vaccinated, 19% first dose and 19% unvaccinated.
Southern COVID-19 vaccination programme lead Hamish Brown said he was pleased with the turnout across the south on Super Saturday, but stressed this is not the end of the campaign.
"We still have over 110 providers across the district operating weekly schedules, are undertaking workplace vaccinations and have outreach teams going into smaller communities,” he said.
"Planning is well under way with Gore District mayor Tracy Hicks and Gary Tong, mayor for the Southland District, to deliver a 'farmgate tour' of Southland in early November, visiting an estimated 20-25 small communities to boost vaccination rates."
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Rural uptake has been slower across the country.
Across the whole SDHB area, 3.2% of the eligible population turned out on Saturday, with 2,696 having their first dose and 6,629 their second.
"This was a significant step towards our goal of reaching at least 90% vaccinated by Christmas, with about 11,000 people still to go to hit this target," Brown says.
In the SDHB area, 69% are fully vaccinated, 17% have had just one dose, and 14% remain unvaccinated.
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Nationally, 130,002 people were vaccinated on Super Saturday, including 39,025 first doses.
Some 65.3% of the 4.21 million eligible population are fully vaccinated, 19.4% have had only one dose, and 15.3% are unvaccinated.
There were 92 new cases community cases over the weekend and another 60 today. All were in Auckland, except eight in the Waikato.