The far west of New South Wales has the fastest weekly increase in Covid vaccination rates, and the percentage of people who have received at least one dose of a vaccine has almost doubled in a month.
The federal government releases weekly data for vaccination rates by statistical area 4 (SA4) regions. By comparing the rates from the first report on 1 August with subsequent reports we can see the areas with the biggest weekly percentage increases in vaccination, and biggest increases since the data was released.
The latest data shows the far-west region has had a dramatic increase in the proportion of people getting their first dose, though it still ranks towards the bottom of all areas for the percentage of fully vaccinated people.
The large increase is a result of a coordinated effort by the NSW government to increase vaccination rates in the area in the face of an unfolding Covid crisis within predominantly Indigenous communities.
Leaked data from the NSW government shows that western NSW still has a large gap in the proportion of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who have been fully vaccinated, but that the gap for the first dose vaccination rate is much lower.
Mapping the data shows that otherwise the larger increases are concentrated on Sydney, with the regions surrounding Sydney also ranking highly:
The areas with the lowest increases in the percentage of vaccinated people are in south-west Tasmania and outback Western Australia, with WA in particular having several areas at the bottom of the rankings.
Here, you can see the same information in a table, which can be sorted by region name, state or the change in vaccination percentage:
