Coronavirus Australia: Nation’s vaccine rates revealed: How safe is your suburb? Epicentre of Delta outbreak has lowest vaccination rates

Vaccination coverage is split along socio-economic lines, with new data showing the poorest areas have markedly lower numbers.

People line up for their vaccination for the Vaccination Hub at Sydney Olympic Park. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

Vaccination coverage is split along socio-economic lines in Australia, with new data showing the poorest areas with high migrant populations have markedly lower numbers of people who have received a jab.

Despite being the epicentre of Sydney’s Delta outbreak, southwest Sydney has the lowest vaccination rate in NSW, with just 33.1 per cent of adults receiving at least one dose and 14.7 per cent fully vaccinated. However, the area also has a population that skews younger, meaning many would not yet have had access to a vaccine.

Publication of the data by the commonwealth vaccine task force came as it released a new strategy in which intensive vaccination is planned in areas hit by Covid-19 outbreaks.

The “lightning response” option will provide up to 3000 additional vaccine doses a day over a two-week period in localised hotspot zones.

Doses for the new National Response Option will be stockpiled as supply allows.

Nationally, 19.7 per cent of people are now fully vaccinated.

Vaccination rates in many poorer areas of Melbourne with high numbers of migrant families are also lagging well behind the national average, with only 35 per cent having received one dose in northwest Melbourne and 35 per cent in southeast Melbourne.

In NSW, the North Sydney and Hornsby statistical area – which has a median household income of $2300 a week, almost double that of southwest Sydney – has the highest vaccination rates in Greater Sydney with 52 per cent of adults having received at least a first dose. The area takes in the wealthy suburbs of Mosman, Kirribilli and Neutral Bay and the middle-class upper north shore and Hills District.

In the middle-income Baulkham Hills and Hawkesbury areas, as well as Sutherland in the city’s south, about half of all adults have received at least a first dose.

In Sydney’s CBD and the inner south, where the population is younger, only 36.2 per cent of people have received a first dose.

In Parramatta only 35 per cent of people have received a first dose.

 

Vaccination rates are lower in the outer west of Sydney and the Blue Mountains, the outer southwest and Blacktown. Rates in regional NSW are also generally lower, especially in the far west and Orana regions.

In Victoria, the opposite is true, where rates in many regions ¬exceed those in the city. The Bendigo region has the highest rate in the state, 52.6 per cent of adults having received at least one dose.

The inner south of Melbourne has high rates with almost half having had one dose, but the inner Melbourne city area is lagging behind with only 37.7 per cent having had one dose.

The city’s northwest, northeast and west also have low rates, with only 34.8 per cent of adults having one dose in Melbourne’s west.

 

Medics in southwestern Sydney said misinformation was one of the main drivers of hesitancy.

Cabramatta pharmacist Quinn On said inoculation numbers were picking up now there were more access points to get a vaccine, but there were still major issues with misinformation and hesitancy.

“I think the new data shows residents are not accessing Australian news and the correct health information … they’re continuing to get their news through dodgy non-English sources, which are spreading misinformation, particularly in the Chinese and Vietnamese communities,” Dr On said.

“I’m having to remind people in the community that our vaccines are safe and that we need to listen to qualified health professionals and not the kind of misinformation spread on WeChat.”

Yadu Singh, a cardiologist who has lived in Sydney’s southwest for more than two decades, said vaccine “paranoia” was gripping parts of the city.

“The new (vaccine) figures are appallingly low but this is not the government’s fault. All community leaders in the southwest need to step up and better explain the importance of the vaccine,” said Dr Singh.

In northwest Melbourne, Maribyrnong Mayor Michael Clarke said hesitancy continued to pose problems for community leaders.

“This is one of the most multicultural areas in Victoria and we are battling to get residents to respond to the vaccine call … the main problems we’re seeing is misinformation from overseas sources, and a very strong aversion to the AstraZeneca vaccine.”

In other parts of the country, the trend towards wealthier areas having higher rates of vaccination coverage is also evident.

Rates in most of Brisbane’s suburbs are hovering around 40 per cent vaccinated with one dose, while Queensland’s regions are well behind, with only 26.3 per cent having received one dose in the outback.

Around 47 per cent of adults have received at least one dose of vaccine in the ACT, 43 per cent have had one dose in Darwin and 34.3 one dose in the NT outback.

Rates in Adelaide and the rest of South Australia are between 45.5 per cent and 34.4 per cent, while most areas of Tasmania have close to half of adults vaccinated with one dose.

Vaccination rates in WA are below the national average, with the highest vaccination rate in inner Perth, where 48.9 per cent have received at least one dose. In outback WA, only 18.2 per cent are vaccinated with at least one dose.