15 February 2024
Chris Johnston
[FYI request #25021 email]
Tēnā koe Chris,
Your request for Official information, reference: HNZ00033452
Thank you for your email on 6 December 2023, asking for the following under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
Can you please provide a count of the number of people vaccinated against COVID19
funded by the government of NZ and those who subsequently died of any cause - as
measured by MoH record level patient or payment databases.
Please provide this as a machine readable CSV file.
Dataset 1 - Vaccinations
The following breakdown of each column is required:
1) Month of vaccination - from the first vaccination until the end of Nov 2023
2) Vaccination number (eg 1=1st, 2=2nd, 3=1st booster, 4=2nd booster etc) using a coding
scheme used within the MoH
3) Location - Territorial Local Authority (ie Council area) based grouped into The following
categories: Auckland, Greater Wellington (incld Wairarapa), Christchurch, Dunedin, Rest of
South Island, Lower North Island (including Taranaki and Gisborne but excluding Taupo
and King Country), Uppoer Nirth Island. Ideally this is the physical vaccinating provider
paid. Ideally derived from the location the injection was given (eg Rest Home for a mobile
clinic - which is possible because the address of the patient’s NHI number wil be the rest
home, or the physical address of a physical site like a pharmacy/GP clinic).
4) Age Band of Patient - <19 years old inclusive, 20-39 inclusive, 40-59 inclusive, 60-74
inclusive, 75+ inclusive
5) Intentionally blank - nul
6) Death Last Dose - <30 days inclusive, 31 days-90 days inclusive, 91-180 days, 181 days
to 365 days, 366 days to 730 days inclusive, 731 to 1095 days inclusive, over 1096 days
inclusive. Each of these categories should be calculated from the date of the patients’s
most recent vaccine and a suffix appended depending upon the number of their last
vaccine (eg “<30_5” would be coded against a patient who died within 30 days of their 5th
jab/3rd booster
7) Intentionally blank - nul
8) The count of the number of vaccination injections in each of the categories above when
the underlying dataset has a Group By query applied using Count(Distinct NHI_Number) or
similar for this column.
9) The count of the number of people who subsequently died after the vaccination month in
each of the categories above when the underlying dataset has a Group By query applied
using Count(Distinct NHI_Number) or similar for this column.
So for example, a group of 1000 70 year old people who were injected in June 2023 with
their 3rd injection where 7 people died after 4 months (in Oct 2023) after visiting an ER
would appear in a record like the following:
202307, 3, “Auckland”, “60-74”,”>null_1”, “91-180_3”, “null”, 1000, “7”
Similarly there be no recorded deaths for 366 days and over because this is in the future
after this dataset is being summarised.
If there were 1234 1st injections and no deaths within 30 days of Feb 2022 for teenagers,
but 3 / 345 within 2 months and 10 / 456 in month 4 then the records might look like:
202202, 1, Dunedin, “<19”, “null”, “<30_1”, “N”, 1234, “0”
202202, 1, Dunedin, “<19”, “null”, “31-90_1”, “null”, 345, “S” (see below re use of “S”)
202202, 1, Dunedin, “<19”, “null”, “91_180_1”,“null”, 456, “10”
Dataset 2 - Benchmark Total Vaccinations and Deaths
The following breakdown of each column is required:
1) Month of vaccination - from the first vaccination until the end of Nov 2023
2) Vaccination number (eg 1=1st, 2=2nd, 3=1st booster, 4=2nd booster etc) using a coding
scheme used within the MoH
3) Intentionally blank - nul
4) Age Band of Patient - <19 years old inclusive, 20-39 inclusive, 40-59 inclusive, 60-74
inclusive, 75+ inclusive
5) Death First Dose - <30 days inclusive, 31 days-90 days inclusive, 91-180 days, 181 days
to 365 days, 366 days to 730 days inclusive, 731 to 1095 days inclusive, over 1096 days
inclusive. Each of these categories should be calculated from the date of the patients’s first
injection and a suffix “_1” appended
6) Death Last Dose - <30 days inclusive, 31 days-90 days inclusive, 91-180 days, 181 days
to 365 days, 366 days to 730 days inclusive, 731 to 1095 days inclusive, over 1096 days
inclusive. Each of these categories should be calculated from the date of the patients’s
most recent vaccine and a suffix appended depending upon the number of their last
vaccine (eg “<30_5” would be coded against a patient who died within 30 days of their 5th
jab/3rd booster)
7) ER Visit - a “E” if the patient visited a hospital Emergency Room for any reason between
their last injection and their date of death inclusive. Otherwise “N”.
8) The count of the number of vaccination injections in each of the categories above when
the underlying dataset has a Group By query applied using Count(Distinct NHI_Number) or
similar for this column.
9) The count of the number of people who subsequently died after the vaccination month in
each of the categories above when the underlying dataset has a Group By query applied
using Count(Distinct NHI_Number) or similar for this column.
Dataset 3 - Control Group
For anyone in the NHI dataset who is NOT in the COVID Vax Pay per Dose database but is
enrolled with a GP Practice in NZ, please produce the following dataset.
The following breakdown of each column is required:
1) Date of 1st COVID19 injection in NZ - this wil be the same value for each row
2) Vaccination number - 0 - the same for all rows
4) Age Band of Patient - <19 years old inclusive, 20-39 inclusive, 40-59 inclusive, 60-74
inclusive, 75+ inclusive
5) Death Period - <30 days inclusive, 31 days-90 days inclusive, 91-180 days, 181 days to
365 days, 366 days to 730 days inclusive, 731 to 1095 days inclusive, over 1096 days
inclusive. Each of these categories should be calculated from the date in column (1) of this
dataset and a suffix “_0” appended
8) Size of Control at start - The count of the number of people in each of the categories
above when the underlying dataset has a Group By query applied using Count(Distinct
NHI_Number) or similar for this column.
9) Death count - The count of the number of people who subsequently died after the date in
column (1) in each of the categories above when the underlying dataset has a Group By
query applied using Count(Distinct NHI_Number) or similar for this column.
For all Datasets please provide a list of codes used and descriptions, and a description of
the file format.
A Reasonable OIA with Precedent
This OIA should be possible by using simple queries on the entire datasets of COVID Vax
Pay per Dose and National Minimum Dataset of Hospital data - matched using the NHI
number. My understanding is the Pay Per Dose dataset is about 12m records.
This OIA does not ask for the creation of any information, just the aggregation of a data set
the MoH already collects as a normal course of its business.
This OIA does not seek any personal or commercial information about patients or suppliers.
Where a cell count in column (7) or (8) is less than 5 please mark as “S”. Where a cell
count in column (7) is truely zero this should not occur in the dataset.
Response
The Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) enables people to request official information from
Ministers and agencies, including Te Whatu Ora. However, the OIA only applies to information that
is already held by Te Whatu Ora. There is no obligation on Te Whatu Ora to create information in
order to respond to a request.
Te Whatu Ora have received several similar OIA requests asking for deaths and covid vaccination
status data over the past two months. Many of these requests would require the creation of new
information and/or would require significant resource to col ate. Because of this, we are unable to
provide bespoke responses to each individual request. Instead, we have consolidated the
requirements from all OIA requests asking for deaths and covid vaccination status data and
produced a standard dataset (see attached).
We acknowledge that the standard dataset provided may not meet all your requirements or may
provide more detail than requested. Where requirements have not been met, we apologise, but
due to the work required to create this information and the available resources, this is the best we
can do without severely impacting our other functions. Where more detail has been provided than
requested, you wil be able to aggregate the data up to the level you desire.
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us at
[email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
by phoning 0800 802 602.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Te Whatu Ora may
proactively release a copy of this response on our website. Al requester data, including your name
and contact details, wil be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Daniel e Coe
Manager (OIA) Government Services
Office of the Chief Executive
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
