COVID-19 vaccination coverage and hesitancy among groups prioritised in Australia's vaccine rollout

Aitken, Z.; Emerson, E.; Kavanagh, A.

Objectives: This paper examines differences in vaccination coverage and hesitancy for people in vaccine priority groups. Design, setting, participants: Using data from 2,400 Australians who participated in two waves of the Taking the Pulse of the Nation survey in April and May 2021, we describe vaccination coverage and hesitancy among vaccine priority groups including people with disability, people living with a severe mental health condition, a severe long-term health condition, those requiring frequent assistance with everyday activities, and people who provide paid or unpaid care. Main outcome measures: The proportion of the sample who were vaccinated and who were vaccine hesitant, for the whole sample and for vaccine priority groups, disaggregated by age group and gender. Results: COVID-19 vaccine coverage was estimated to be 8.2% overall, higher for people with severe long term health conditions (13.4%) and lower for people with severe mental health conditions (4.3%). Vaccine hesitancy was high overall (35.6%) and was found to be lower for people with disability (30.3%), with severe long term health conditions (27.7%), with frequent need for assistance (24.2%) and carers (30.7%), but similar for those with severe mental health conditions (36.1%). Conclusions: Low vaccination coverage and high hesitancy for people in the priority groups leaves many people at significant risk of serious disease or death if infected with COVID-19. These findings demonstrate the urgent need for governments to enable easy access to vaccination for people in priority groups and to develop communication strategies to promote vaccination uptake, co-designed with the priority groups.