Auckland's Counties Manukau District Health Board has hit the vaccination target of having 90 percent of its eligible population fully vaccinated.
Photo: RNZ / Patrice Allen
That means all three DHBs in the Auckland region have hit the vaccination target. Auckland DHB is now sitting on 95 percent and Waitemata DHB is on 92 percent.
Counties Manukau has the second biggest eligible Māori population for a DHB and the biggest eligible Pacific population in the country.
DHB chief executive Margie Apa attributed it to the hard work of Māori and Pacific health providers and community organisations who've collaborated on the vaccine rollout.
Auckland Councillor Josephine Bartley on Counties Manukau DHB told Checkpoint she was "over the moon" with the result.
She never doubted they would reach 90 percent, "but we still have got to work hard for our Māori and Pasifika rates," she said.
"Although Counties Manukau is 90 percent, for Māori and Pasifika it's still not 90 percent yet."
Empowering community groups to carry out vaccinations had worked well, Bartley said.
"I'm so grateful the Ministry of Health and our DHB ... for releasing everything over to community and empowering our community, resourcing our community to take over and do it. And that's when we saw the vaccinations go up...
"It is a more than just a job for everybody - everyone is out there because they love people, they love community."
The model of empowering the community could be learned from, she said.
Six DHBs are now 90 percent fully vaccinated.
The following DHBs are all close, on 89 percent fully vaccinated (with numbers required to get to 90 percent)
- Midcentral (1755 doses to go)
- Wairarapa (395 to go)
- Nelson Marlborough (1905 to go)
- South Canterbury (750 to go)
New Zealand is 7417 doses away from being nationally 90 percent fully vaccinated.