133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
29 September 2021
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
T+64 4 496 2000
C A
By email: [FYI request #16584 email]
Ref:
H202112040
Tēnā koe C A
Response to your request for official information
Thank you for your request under the Of icial Information Act 1982 (the Act) on 31 August 2021
for information regarding COVID-19 vaccine, hospitalisations and deaths. I wil respond to each
part of your request in turn:
“1) Please can you provide me with the admission numbers to New Zealand hospitals for
the last 5 years? 2016-2020, and the current year so far?
The number of publicly funded hospital discharges for the last 5 years is below. Please note, I
have provided data for discharges rather than admissions as events do not get reported until
after discharge. Some hospital treatments may last years (such as long stay geriatric events)
and consequently, it would be years before any of those admissions were reported. Please also
note, the 2020 and 2021 data is considered incomplete as it takes a while for all the non-DHB
hospitals’ data to be reported, coded and loaded.
As of 13 September 2021:
Financial year
Number of publicly funded hospital discharges
2016/ 2017
1,210,564
2017/ 2018
1,228,860
2018/ 2019
1,249,381
2019/ 2020
1,192,595
2020/ 2021
1,240,420
2021/ 2022 (year to date)
179,046
2) Of those who died of any causes this year, how many had received any Covid-19 vaccine
and how many were unvaccinated?
An observed versus expected analysis wil be published from Wednesday 29 September 2021
as part of the Medsafe weekly safety report. This analysis uses the observed number of deaths
recorded in the mortality register for people vaccinated with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. As
the mortality collection operates several weeks in arrears, data wil initially be up until the 30
June 2021 and updated monthly thereafter. This does not include people who may have
received another COVID-19 vaccine overseas. The Ministry is not able to say with certainty
whether anyone has not been vaccinated, as we may not have a record of their vaccination. For
example, an individual may have received a vaccination overseas. We are therefore unable to
provide information on deaths in unvaccinated people. This part of your request is refused
under section 18(g)(i) of the Act- as the information requested is not held by the Ministry and
there are no grounds for believing it is held by another agency subject to the Act.
3) Of those admitted to hospital in 2020, how many have received any covid-19 vaccine?”
The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine became available in New Zealand in February 2021 which is after
the period of interest; and the Ministry’s hospitalisations data does not include information on
whether an individual received a COVID-19 vaccine overseas. Therefore, this part of your
request is refused under section 18(g)(i) of the Act- as the information requested is not held by
the Ministry and there are no grounds for believing it is held by another agency subject to the
Act.
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 cal ing 0800 802 602.
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Ministry of Health website at:
www.health.govt.nz/about-ministry/information-releases.
Nāku noa, nā
Gaynor Bradfield
Manager, Office of the Deputy Director-General
Data and Digital
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