8 April 2024
Ryan
[FYI request #25121 email]
Tēnā koe Ryan,
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00034388
Thank you for your email on 12 December 2023, asking Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora information
about COVID-19 vaccine under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act). You will receive two response
letters to your questions, as your request requires information across two distinct directorates within
Health New Zealand. Please find the Intelligence Directorate response to questions 1, 4, 5, and 8 of your
response below.
1. Please provide information under the act anticipated within Report #47 with update as to why we
have had no data to allay our concerns for so long and then provide, to the latest date available, if not to
the present day, information to show how many injected in total died within 21 days of any cause from
Dose 1, Dose 2, Dose 3, Dose 4, Dose 5 et al - please provide number injected and number dead in table
form broken into age brackets as per the Medsafe report #46 tables 6, 7 & 8 - no need to provide the
background data as we now have this.
4. Please provide in table format, the latest data for the next tier of reporting for the ‘number of days’ in
which people died from any cause following vaccination - such as those who died within 30 days 45 days
60 days and 120 days et al as well based on data held by the various govt departments.
8. Regarding the covid vaccine data - please provide information showing how many vaccinated with any
dose are now listed as dead / deceased based on the most current data held as a cumulative total along
with the background rate of how many people have died in New Zealand since April 2021 to the same
most current date period."
Please refer to HNZ00034388 Attachment showing the data for deaths in NZ from July 2019 to 1 December
2023. Note, this is all-cause death data as the cause of death is not yet available. Provisional- this data has
not undergone full quality assurance. Low numbers (<5) are withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the Act in
order to protect their privacy. The need to protect the privacy of these individuals is not outweighed by the
public interest in the release of this information.
Currently, 2018 is the most recent year for which finalised cause-specific mortality data is available.
Preliminary data is available for 2019 and 2020. This is because after the close of a calendar year, there is a
12–18-month process to assign cause-of-death codes to the majority of deaths in that year. Our clinical
coding team reviews the death certificate and health history of the deceased to assign cause of death
codes.
Approximately 10% of deaths are referred to the coroner each year to determine cause. Deaths which
require a coronial inquiry can take 2-3 or more years for cause of death to be assigned. We do not make
mortality data available publicly until the majority of deaths have been assigned a cause of death, so that
the data we release is complete and accurate. The Chief Coroner has noted delays in the time it is taking
them to determine cause of death.
5. Report #46 from Medsafe to 30th Sept 2022 stated 2,733,743 were injected wth Dose 3 and that by 1st
December 2023 that number had risen to 2,775,685 meaning the uptake of Dose 3 across the 14 months
was 41,942 - please release the month by month statistics in relation to Dose 3 showing number injected
and how many deaths from any cause within 21 days, 30 days and 60 days of taking a covid injection.
Please see below data for the number of third COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in NZ from 01
October 2022 to 30 November 2023. Provisional- this data has not undergone full quality assurance.
Source: Aotearoa Immunisation Register (AIR). Information about deaths in included on the
HNZ00034388 Attachment.
Year-Month
3rd doses administered
Year-Month
3rd doses administered
2022-10
4660
2023-05
3341
2022-11
5164
2023-06
2501
2022-12
4741
2023-07
1371
2023-01
3112
2023-08
1056
2023-02
1827
2023-09
729
2023-03
2181
2023-10
672
2023-04
3805
2023-11
1050
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, Health NZ may proactively release a
copy of this response on our website. All requester data, including your name and contact details, will be
removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Director, Intelligence
National Public Health Service
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Wellington 6140, New Zealand
