Low turnout at east Christchurch vaccine clinic

All his friends have been vaccinated - but Ruben Johnson has been avoiding it until now.

The 15-year-old got his first Covid-19 jab yesterday, from Rene van Eck, at a walk-in mobile clinic at Haeata Community Campus in Aranui.

“A little, not that much,” was Ruben’s assessment of how much the needle hurt.

He was glad to be a new sign-up to the nationwide immunisation campaign, for the simple reason that now he "might not get Covid".

Ruben’s mother Justine, a teacher at the school, brought her son and his 14-year-old sister, India, who both go to Papanui High School, in to get their first jabs.

While India had been on board with the need to be vaccinated, Ruben took some convincing due to his dislike of injections.

The two teenagers were among 16 people vaccinated at the Haeata clinic, which was open from 11.30am-2pm yesterday.

Whanau Ora Community Clinic clinical lead Mani Beniwal said she believed the low turnout was due to the poor weather and school holidays.

Whanau Ora is now planning a clinic each week at the school in school hours, noon-2pm, over the next three weeks.

Beniwal said the aim was to attract Haeata Community Campus students and their families who had not been vaccinated.

Jadah Coffin, head girl at Haeata, was supported by fellow student Isabel Froom as she got her second jab at the clinic yesterday.

Like Ruben, all her friends were on board with being vaccinated.

Nevertheless, Jadah was aware the school’s catchment area had one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

She believed this was more to do with access issues than resistance. Single parents and other busy members of the community could find it difficult to get to vaccination clinics, she said.

East Christchurch has one of the country’s lowest vaccination rates.

Wainoni is among the bottom 10 suburbs in New Zealand, with 70.2 per cent of residents having had a single dose.

And Aranui is the least vaccinated suburb in Canterbury, with 59.7 per cent having had their first dose.

Vaccination rates as of Tuesday (Source: MOH)

Rank	Change	City or district	Fully vaccinated	One dose only	Unvaccinated
1	-	Dunedin	69.0%	19.0%	12.0%
2	-	Marlborough	68.0%	16.3%	15.7%
3	-	Central Otago	66.0%	19.0%	15.0%
4	-	Nelson	65.4%	15.6%	19.0%
5	▲ 1	Auckland	63.4%	22.3%	14.3%
6	▲ 3	Kāpiti Coast	63.2%	19.9%	16.9%
7	▲ 1	Hamilton	62.7%	20.3%	17.0%
8	▼ 1	Tasman	62.1%	16.2%	21.7%
9	▲ 2	Timaru	62.0%	19.0%	19.0%
10	▲ 2	Queenstown-Lakes	61.9%	29.8%	8.3%
11	▼ 6	Kaikōura	61.6%	14.8%	23.6%
12	▼ 2	Thames-Coromandel	61.0%	17.2%	21.8%
13	-	South Wairarapa	60.8%	22.2%	17.0%
14	-	Carterton	60.2%	19.9%	19.9%
15	-	Manawatū	59.9%	21.1%	19.0%
16	▲ 8	Wellington	59.6%	31.2%	9.2%
17	▲ 4	Waipā	58.6%	23.3%	18.1%
18	▼ 1	Napier	58.2%	20.2%	21.6%
19	▲ 6	Palmerston North	58.1%	24.0%	17.9%
20	▼ 4	Masterton	58.0%	18.7%	23.3%
21	▼ 2	Whanganui	57.8%	15.8%	26.4%
22=	▼ 4	Wairoa	57.6%	11.4%	31.0%
22=	▲ 1	Invercargill	57.6%	20.1%	22.3%
24	▼ 2	Hastings	57.4%	20.7%	21.9%
25=	▲ 4	Whangārei	57.2%	18.3%	24.5%
25=	▼ 6	Waitaki	57.2%	20.8%	22.0%
27=	▼ 1	Waikato	57.1%	22.1%	20.8%
27=	▲ 1	Porirua	57.1%	23.5%	19.4%
29	▼ 2	Gore	56.8%	17.9%	25.3%
30	▲ 2	Lower Hutt	56.0%	26.4%	17.6%
31	▲ 3	Upper Hutt	55.4%	27.9%	16.7%
32	▼ 2	Horowhenua	55.3%	19.8%	24.9%
33	▲ 2	Central Hawke's Bay	55.0%	22.8%	22.2%
34=	▼ 4	Buller	54.6%	16.7%	28.7%
34=	▼ 2	Westland	54.6%	22.5%	22.9%
36	▲ 2	Selwyn	54.4%	35.0%	10.6%
37	▲ 3	Christchurch	53.2%	30.4%	16.4%
38	▼ 2	Tararua	52.9%	20.3%	26.8%
39=	-	Gisborne	52.8%	17.1%	30.1%
39=	▼ 2	Stratford	52.8%	19.1%	28.1%
39=	▲ 7	Western Bay of Plenty	52.8%	25.8%	21.4%
42=	▲ 5	Waimate	52.5%	23.7%	23.8%
42=	▲ 2	Tauranga	52.5%	27.7%	19.8%
44	▼ 2	Matamata-Piako	52.2%	25.4%	22.4%
45	▲ 5	New Plymouth	51.9%	25.3%	22.8%
46	▼ 5	Clutha	51.8%	23.1%	25.1%
47	▲ 1	Rangitikei	51.6%	23.9%	24.5%
48	▲ 2	Waimakariri	51.4%	28.2%	20.4%
49	▼ 5	Taupō	51.1%	22.3%	26.6%
50=	▼ 8	Rotorua	51.0%	21.4%	27.6%
50=	▲ 2	Hurunui	51.0%	27.2%	21.8%
52	▲ 2	Waitomo	50.1%	19.5%	30.4%
53	-	South Taranaki	49.9%	21.9%	28.2%
54	▼ 6	Grey	49.6%	22.6%	27.8%
55	-	Southland	49.0%	25.1%	25.9%
56	▲ 4	Kaipara	48.1%	22.1%	29.8%
57	▲ 1	Ōpōtiki	47.5%	17.9%	34.6%
58	▲ 1	Far North	47.3%	19.8%	32.9%
59=	▼ 3	Whakatāne	47.2%	19.5%	33.3%
59=	▼ 3	Hauraki	47.2%	24.4%	28.4%
61=	▲ 1	Ōtorohanga	46.1%	24.6%	29.3%
61=	▲ 2	Mackenzie	46.1%	30.8%	23.1%
63	▲ 1	Ashburton	45.8%	34.7%	19.5%
64=	▼ 3	Ruapehu	44.2%	22.6%	33.2%
64=	▲ 1	South Waikato	44.2%	23.3%	32.5%
66	-	Kawerau	40.4%	20.2%	39.4%