Australia’s COVID vaccination rate has reached a critical first-dose milestone. 

Health Minister Greg Hunt said 79.94 per cent of the eligible population had received a vaccine by the end of Monday, leaving just 13,000 doses to hit the 80 per cent milestone. These would have been delivered on Tuesday morning.

Nationally, 57.36 per cent of the population aged 16 and over has now been fully vaccinated.

Based on its current pace of vaccine delivery, the ABC estimates that Australia will hit the 80 per cent double-dose target by mid-November.

NSW and the ACT should both reach the all-important benchmark of having 70 per cent of their eligible populations fully vaccinated later this week.

NSW was expected to reach that point on Tuesday, with the figures (which are usually released the following day) confirmed on Wednesday. However, Monday’s public holiday mean far fewer doses were delivered than usual — only 22,150 doses, compared with more than 125,000 the previous two Mondays. 

This means the state is likely to hit the 70 per cent target at least a day later than expected.

According to the state’s roadmap out of lockdown, from the Monday after NSW hits this target (so from October 11) numerous restrictions will lift for fully vaccinated residents, including millions in Greater Sydney who have spent the past 14 weeks in lockdown.

The data is in the charts below, which track how the states and territories are progressing in the coronavirus vaccination rollout, as well as how Australia compares to the rest of the world.

The data was last updated on Tuesday, October 5. 

Data for Australia are sourced from federal, state and territory health authorities, while international numbers are from the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford.

Both sets of numbers are updated daily, so bookmark this page to stay up-to-date.

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• Date to reach vaccination targets
• People vaccinated
• Daily doses
• Vaccinations by age group
• Vaccinations by region
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
• Aged and disability care
• Global comparisons
• Doses per continent
• World map of vaccine use

Australia is now delivering one million doses every 3-4 days, compared with 45 days for the first one million doses, 20 days for the next million doses and 17 days for the third million total doses.

So far, 28,955,015 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been delivered across the country.

Australia’s vaccination program has picked up pace since local outbreaks in multiple states plunged millions into lockdown.

At our current pace of 987,336 second doses a week, Australia is on track to fully vaccinate the 20.62 million people aged 16 and older in December 2021.

The chart above shows Australia’s progress towards the new vaccination targets set out in National Cabinet’s four-stage roadmap to return to normal. The calculations assume a constant pace based on the seven-day moving average for 1st doses and the current interval between doses in each jurisdiction.

According to the national roadmap, Australia will move to the next phase of opening up when 70 per cent of the population aged 16 and older have had two doses of vaccine. This is the equivalent of 56.2 per cent of the total population.

The third phase will come into force when 80 per cent of the population aged 16 and older are fully vaccinated — the equivalent of 64.2 per cent of the total population.

Neither milestone has a target date.

The ACT, NSW and Tasmania are leading the way, with at least 60 per cent of residents fully vaccinated.

Vaccine coverage is widest in the ACT, closely followed by NSW, where the Delta outbreak has killed hundreds of people and hospitalised thousands. 

Between June 26 — when the Delta outbreak plunged Greater Sydney and its surrounds into lockdown — and the end of August, state-wide daily doses quadrupled from roughly 31,000 to 120,000, based on the seven-day moving average.

The vaccination gap between young and old has started to narrow, with 16- to 39-year-olds across Australia eligible for Pfizer vaccinations from August 30, and 12- to 15-year-olds eligible from September 13.

The effect was particularly stark in NSW. From July 24 Greater Sydney residents of all ages were urged to consider the Astra-Zeneca vaccine and in mid-August young adults living in COVID hotspots were given priority access to Pfizer.

Throughout August and September, NSW residents young adults took up the COVID vaccine at nearly twice the pace of the rest of the nation. About 60 per cent of residents aged 16-39 received their first shot in the period, compared to 33 per cent of people aged 40 and older.

However, the strongest vaccine uptake of the rollout has been among 12- to 15-year-olds. Roughly 2 per cent of this age group per day are receiving a first shot, rising to 3 per cent in NSW and 4 per cent in the ACT. 

Even older teens and young adults, who have the next strongest rates, only ever achieved peaks around 1.5-2.5%, depending on the state.

Vaccine uptake in NSW has slowed since September, allowing the ACT and Victoria to take the lead.

Roughly 6 per cent of ACT residents and 4.5 per cent of Victorians received a first shot in the past week, compared to 3.5 per cent across Australia.

At its peak at the end of August, more than 7.5 per cent of NSW residents a week were receiving their first shot of a COVID vaccine, compared to about 5 per cent nationwide.

However, these figures vary significantly by region, ranging from as low as 2-4 per cent in parts of Queensland to 7-8 per cent in areas of Melbourne.

The data, shown in the map below, is for Statistical Area 4 (SA4) boundaries, which are based around labour markets and each have at least 100,000 residents.

The vaccination divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians continues to worsen. Federal government figures show it has increased every week since the first figures were released in mid-August.

This is despite Indigenous Australians being prioritised in the initial phases of the vaccine rollout and recent efforts to urgently vaccinate Indigenous people in remote communities threatened by the Delta outbreak.

Among the states and territories, the first-dose vaccination gap is four times worse in Victoria as in the ACT.

Australia-wide, more than 40 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders aged 16 and older are at least partially vaccinated, compared to more than 70 per cent of their peers in the general population. However, the figures vary significantly by region.

In areas of WA’s Outback, Mandurah and Perth, less than 30 per cent of the Indigenous people have had at least one dose of vaccine, while in areas of Sydney the figure reaches past 80 per cent.

The chart below shows Indigenous vaccination rates for the population aged 16 and older, plus the gap between Indigenous and all Australians for Statistical Area 4 boundaries. SA4s are based around labour markets and each have at least 100,000 residents.

More than two-thirds of aged care and disability care residents and workers have had one dose of vaccine and half are fully vaccinated.

In February, the government estimated that the rollout to aged and disability care facilities would take roughly six weeks. Counting from the campaign’s official launch on February 22, this means the sector should have been completed by April 4.

National Cabinet has mandated that all aged care workers must have had at least one dose of vaccine by September 17.

On August 20, NSW mandated that childcare and disability support workers who live or work in a council “of concern” must have received their first vaccination dose by August 30.

Elsewhere in Australia, vaccination is strongly recommended but not mandatory for disability support workers.

*On September 6 the federal government stopped supplying the figures needed to calculated the percentages of people at least partially and fully vaccinated in aged and disability care. The ABC’s request for these figures is being considered.

The COVID-19 vaccination rollout is the single biggest and most complex inoculation campaign in the nation’s history.

It has been plagued by problems, ranging from delays in international supply, local production and delivery of vaccines both to and within Australia.

An ABC analysis at the end of May found the government announced more than a dozen targets, revisions or updates to the rollout timetable since January, and even before the AstraZeneca shakeup had missed every goal set for the campaign.

The original long-term target was to fully vaccinate all 20 million adults by October 2021.

In April, the federal government scrapped that plan and abandoned all targets following new medical advice recommending against the AstraZeneca vaccine for younger Australians. This was revised again in light of the NSW Delta outbreak and the increased the chances of catching COVID in Greater Sydney.

New vaccination targets were announced at the end of July, as part of Australia’s four-stage national roadmap to return to normal.

One of the aims of vaccination is to achieve “herd immunity”, which is when enough people are immunised to stop or slow the spread of the disease.

The threshold for herd immunity varies with each disease. For measles, for example, about 95 per cent of the population needs to be immunised, whereas for polio, the figure is closer to 80 per cent.

The threshold for COVID-19 is still unknown but expert estimates range between 60 and 90 per cent.

Portugal is vaccinating its people faster than any other nation.

About 85.2% of the population have received the two doses needed to be fully vaccinated.

(Almost all the vaccines currently being used internationally require two doses several weeks apart. People are not fully vaccinated until they receive the second dose.)

It is followed by United Arab Emirates, where 83.4% of people have been fully vaccinated, and Malta, which has fully vaccinated 81.7% of its population.

Luxembourg has the highest percentage of people — 66.1% — partially inoculated against COVID-19, meaning they have received the first dose of a two-dose vaccine regime.

It is closely followed by Kuwait, at 61.6%, and Cuba, at 37.6%.

Globally, some 188 countries have already delivered about 6357.3 million vaccine jabs, which equates to roughly 80.7 doses per 100 people.

In India, 6 million shots are given per day, based on the seven-day rolling average — just one indication of the immense logistical exercise underway.

It is followed by China, where 1.6 million jabs are given per day, on average.

Bangladesh is third, with an average of 1.5 million shots a day.

Adjusting the number of daily doses for population size puts Brunei in front, with 1.8 doses per 100 people per day, based on the seven-day rolling average.

It is followed by Cuba, at 1.7, then Samoa, with 1.6.

Massive chasms between rich and poor have erupted in the contest to vaccinate against coronavirus.

In Africa, some 62.4 million people (4.7% of the continent) are fully vaccinated — a fraction of the 283.7 million people in North America (47.9% of the continent).

Wealthy nations have been accused of hoarding vaccines while poor countries scramble to secure enough supplies to vaccinate their critical workers and most vulnerable citizens.

Canada, Australia, the UK, the EU and New Zealand are among the economies that have purchased enough doses to fully immunise their populations at least three times over, according to figures compiled by the Duke Global Health Innovation Center.

Australia has secured enough doses to fully vaccinate the population six times over, although it is possible that not all of these vaccines will be approved to market.

Meanwhile, many low and lower-middle income countries cannot vaccinate even half their populations.

Currently, 18 vaccines are being used around the world. Oxford/AstraZeneca′s vaccine is used in 181 countries, making it the most widely adopted. It is followed by Pfizer/BioNTech, which is used in 136 countries, then Moderna, currently administered in 75 countries.

Only the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires a single shot; all others require two doses several weeks or months apart.

The Australian government has five separate agreements for the supply of COVID-19 vaccines.

As of September 2021, Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca, Moderna’s Spikevax and Johnson & Johnson have been provisionally approved for use by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. However Johnson & Johnson has not yet been purchased for use in the national rollout.

Delivery of the Pfizer vaccine to “priority groups” of quarantine and border workers, frontline health workers and aged care and disability sector staff and residents began in late February.

The first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were delivered in early March. The government has secured 53.8 million doses of this vaccine.

In early May, the government struck a deal for 25 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, which will be used to shore up Australia’s other supplies and as a booster for future COVID variants. The first doses arrived in September. So far, 10 million doses have been scheduled for delivery towards in 2021, with a further 15 million not due until 2022.

The Novavax vaccine, which was expected to be available in the first half of 2021, is now slated for the third quarter due to supply shortages. Australia’s deal with Novavax includes 51 million doses.

Australia has also joined the COVAX Facility, a global collaboration working for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, with a commitment to purchase 25.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for the Australian population.

Credits

Reporting: Inga Ting
Development: Katia Shatoba
Design: Alex Palmer
Data compilation prior to July 16: Michael Workman, Inga Ting, Stephen Hutcheon
Digital production: Stephen Hutcheon

Notes

• As of July 16, data for Australia are provided by the federal Department of Health and extracted by Ken Tsang.
• The sum of first and second doses does not equal total doses. This is because total doses includes doses given to people aged 12-15 and people who already had two shots of vaccine. These are excluded from percentages of people vaccinated, which refer to the population aged 16 and older in line with the national vaccination targets.

• Dates refer to when the figure is reported, and generally refer to doses or totals for the previous day.

• Data before and after July 29, and before and after August 16, should be compared with caution.

  - On July 29 the Department of Health began reporting data based on residence rather than clinic location (to account for people crossing state or territory borders to be vaccinated), causing anomalies in state and territory figures. This was especially problematic for the ACT and NT, which both recorded a negative number of daily doses and a fall in the percentage and number of people vaccinated. The change also caused a spike in daily doses for NSW.

  - On August 16 the Department began sourcing all data from the Australian Immunisation Register. Previously, some data for some jurisdictions was self-reported. It also began including doses administered by the Australian Defence Force (ADF), Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). which vaccinated the Australian Olympic Team.

• Cumulative counts may not equal the sum of new doses due to delayed reporting by health authorities and other revisions. For example, on April 19 the federal government reported a daily increase of 86,316 doses in primary care settings (GPs and health centres). This included 80,560 “historical” vaccinations completed before April 17. These have been included in the cumulative count for April 19 but excluded from that day’s new doses.
• Our World in Data figures for Australia may be up to two days behind ABC News’ figures. This is because Our World in Data figures are updated each morning (London time) with the official numbers up to the previous day. For detailed notes about international figures, see Our World in Data’s country-by-country source information.