Covid-19 vaccines saved thousands of lives in Aotearoa

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-02-07 09:12

New Zealand

Photo by Mat Napo on Unsplash

Aotearoa had one of the lowest Covid-19 pandemic mortality rates in the world, thanks to its elimination strategy that meant most people were vaccinated before being exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. By modelling scenarios with different levels of vaccine coverage, researchers estimate that vaccines saved between 4,400 and 12,000 lives and prevented between 34,000 and 56,000 hospitalisations during the period from January 2022 and June 2023. They also say that equity needs to be a key focus of future vaccination programmes, as their results show that if vaccination rates had been equitable, an estimated 11%-26% of the 292 Māori Covid-19 deaths that were recorded in this time period could have been prevented.

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Expert Reaction

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Michael Plank, Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Canterbury

New Zealand had one of the lowest pandemic death rates in the world. This study confirms that the vaccines were absolutely crucial to this outcome, saving between 4,400 and 12,000 lives in the first 18 months of the Omicron period alone. Despite good vaccination rates overall, there were major inequities in the rollout. We estimated that 11% to 26% of Māori Covid-19 deaths could have been prevented if vaccination rates had been more equitable.

Last updated: 07 Feb 2024 3:12pm

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Declared conflicts of interest I received funding from the Ministry of Health for mathematical modelling of Covid-19.

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Research Elsevier, Web page

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conference: Vaccine

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), University of Canterbury, Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research, University of Auckland, Precision Driven Health, NZ; iNZight Analytics Ltd., NZ

Funder: This work was partly funded by the New Zealand Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and Ministry of Health, New Zealand.

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