How Australia’s coronavirus vaccine rollout really compares with other countries
Australia is 100th in the world for the number of Covid-19 vaccinations administered for every hundred residents and 44th in total doses administered, according to Guardian Australia analysis of data from Our World in Data.
The federal government compared Australia’s current rollout to several countries in its latest vaccine update, including the United Kingdom, United States, France and Germany. But this excludes several countries that have either done extraordinarily well from the outset, or overtaken Australia’s mark.
Israel has been a model for the vaccine rollout since the beginning, and had administered more than 60 vaccines for every 100 people at an equivalent point in its rollout to where Australia is now. The United Arab Emirates had also administered almost 60 doses per hundred.
Chile, with a population of just under 19 million people, has administered more than 12 million doses to date. At a similar point in its rollout, Chile had given out almost twice as many doses per 100 people.
However, Chile is currently experiencing a surge in new Covid cases despite its impressive vaccine rollout. This has been blamed on new strains of the virus and lack of social distancing due to the vaccine rollout. Chile is also reliant on the Sinovac vaccine from China, which may have lower efficacy than vaccines such as AstraZeneca and Pfizer.
Bhutan has administered more than 60 doses per 100 people in the few weeks since it started. But the daily rate has significantly slowed from the initial rush.
Comparing Australia’s progress to the total vaccines administered by almost 180 countries highlights Australia’s slow rollout and the delay in approving vaccines.
With just over 1.1m doses administered, Australia trails several countries that are eligible to receive free vaccines through the Gavi vaccine alliance. These include Nepal (1,600,000 administered) and Cambodia (1,286,585 administered). Nepal also has a higher per 100 dose rate than Australia, despite a larger population.
Australia also ranks 70th in doses per 100 among countries using Pfizer and AstraZeneca in their vaccine mix.
It is unclear where growth could come from for Australia to catchup. The government’s latest update shows just 720,000 allocated vaccine doses available as of the 11 April. The data also includes a few hundred thousand that are yet to be distributed.
Notes and methods:
• Days since vaccine rollout was calculated by indexing data against their first appearance in Our World in Data figures. The initial rollout in the United Kingdom was added separately.
• Both Australia and the United Kingdom’s vaccines administered per hundred population was calculated by dividing total doses by population data from Our World in Data and then multiplying by 100.
• Australia’s expected vaccine supply was inferred from a chart in the March 14 vaccine rollout update.
• Australia’s vaccine allocations by jurisdiction were retrieved from the 12th April vaccine rollout update.