Dear Ministry of Health,

On the Case demographics web page (www.health.govt.nz/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-case-demographics) there is a table:'Age and vaccination status of deaths within 28 days of being reported as a case'. The category 'Not fully vaccinated' appears to include both unvaccinated and those who have recieved only one dose. Is this correct?
Can you please supply separate data for the deaths among the unvaccinated, and those who have recieved only one dose, for each age group, for the following dates:
1 February 22
1 March 22
1 April 22
1 May 22
1 June 22
1 July 22
1 August 22
and if you haven't responded by 1 September can you please include that date too?

Many thanks

Yours faithfully,
Paul

Dear Mr Henderson,
Ref H2022009400

Thank you for the table supplied. However, the numbers on the tables do not relate to the numbers published by the MoH on the Covid-19 Case demographics page. So...
1.Can you please define "Deaths Attributable to COVID-19". Is it the same as the definition given on the Case demographics page?
2.Can you confirm the dates for the tables ( ie does the table 'in February' cover 1-28 February etc)?
3.I do not understand the necessity to suppress numbers and round them off. How is privacy affected by this unless there is only one death in each age or vaccination group. (this situation does not apply to any of the tables except for February). Then, only if I knew who that person was, I would be able to determine that person's vaccination status. But other than that, I can not see that there is any no risk of betraying identities. If it is not possible to review this and provide accurate data, then could you please calculate the death rate for each vaccination category in each age group per 100,000 persons in the overall cohort population (not case fatality rate, or infection fatality rate please) for each month. If you do this, could you also please demonstrate how you calculate the number of unvaccinated persons (HSU population 2020 or 2021, or Statistics population estimates, or other). Given that you have the exact numbers on hand, this should not be too difficult.

Yours sincerely,

P McKenna