Segregated Vaccination Rates

At the beginning of the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out in Australia the government set a target of inoculating the whole country by October. So far (at the beginning of September) just over 35% of the population are fully vaccinated. Among First Nation Australians the rate is even lower, with just over 21% fully vaccinated.

Last week the Australian government released data showing the percentage of the whole population and the population of Indigenous Australians who have been vaccinated in each Statistical Area 4 region. ABC News has used this data to map out the gap in the vaccination rates across the country. The interactive map in Why is the Indigenous COVID-19 vaccination rate 20 per cent lower than the national average? shows that the rate of vaccination of Indigenous Australians is lower in every single region, compared to the vaccination  rate of the whole population.In most regions they are significantly lower.

The Guardian has also been exploring the difference in vaccination rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. In Indigenous communities being left behind in NSW vaccine rollout the newspaper has created a map showing this vaccination rate difference across New South Wales. The Guardian's article also lists the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous vaccination rates in every NSW health district. In four of these health districts the vaccination rate for non-Indigenous people is over twice the rate of Indigenous people. In none of the districts are Indigenous Australians being vaccinated at the same rate as non-Indigenous Australians.

In March the Australian government claimed that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were a priority group for Covid-19 vaccinations.