133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
T+64 4 496 2000
6 March 2023
P McKenna
By email: [FYI request #21711 email]
Ref:
H2023019862
Tēnā koe P McKenna
Response to your request for official information Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) to Manatū Hauora
(the Ministry of Health) on 3 February 2023. You requested:
“1) Can you please supply separate data for the deaths among the; unvaccinated; those
who have received only one dose; completed primary course; and received one or more
booster doses, for the period 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022 for the following age
categories:
0-59
60-69
70-79
80-89
90+
2) Can you supply the same data as above for deaths where Covid-19 is the cause or a
contributing cause.
3) Can you supply the same data as above for deaths where Covid-19 is the cause. In this
instance please provide data for all age groups but combine all vaccinated people
together.”
The information you have requested has been collated and accompanies this response letter as
Appendix 1. The information provided is from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022. The
information has been broken down into three sheets:
• Sheet 1 titled ‘Deaths from COVID-19’ sets out aggregate deaths, by vaccination status,
where COVID-19 is the root reason for death (
underlying) in addition to deaths where
COVID-19 is a
contributing factor.
• Sheet 2 titled ‘Contributing’ sets out deaths, by vaccination status, where COVID-19 was
a
contributing cause
of the individuals death. For example, an individual may be
hospitalised with an illness, whereupon they contract COVID-19 and subsequently pass
away. The person died ‘with’ COVID-19 but did not necessarily die ‘from’ COVID-19.
• Sheet 3 titled ‘Underlying’ sets out deaths, by vaccination status, where COVID-19 was
the ‘root’ or ‘main’ cause of the individual’s death, known as
underlying cause.
In order to avoid revealing sensitive information (such as vaccination status) about potentially
identifiable individuals in our data, we apply two data confidentiality methods (perturbation and
suppression) to any data that is not already released as exact counts on the website.
Perturbation is adding random noise to data, and suppression is not providing data in situations
where doing so could compromise confidentiality. For data that is not already provided exactly
on the website:
• All values between 1 and 5 are suppressed.
• Zero values are provided exactly, except for in sensitive categories where a zero value
may be suppressed to protect other low values.
• Values of 6 and above are perturbed using fixed random rounding to base 3
(FRR3). This entails rounding values to neighbouring multiples of 3. For example, 11
may be rounded to 12 or 9.
FRR3 is a best-practice confidentiality method recommended by Stats NZ. For more
information, visit:
www.data.govt.nz/toolkit/privacy-and-security/understanding-data-
confidentiality/data-confidentiality-principles-and-methods-report/. I trust this information fulfils your request. Under section 28(3) of the Act, you have the right to
ask the Ombudsman to review any decisions made under this request. The Ombudsman may
be contacted by email at:
[email address] or by calling 0800 802 602.
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Manatū Hauora website at:
www.health.govt.nz/about-ministry/information-releases/responses-
official-information-act-requests. Nāku noa, nā
Louise Karageorge
Group Manager, Intelligence, Surveillance and Knowledge Public Health Agency | Te Pou Hauora Tūmatanui
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