Regional Victoria hits 70 per cent first vaccine dose target

More than 70 per cent of those aged 16 and over in regional Victoria have received their first vaccine dose, new health department data shows.

As of Monday morning, 73.7 per cent of the eligible population of regional Victoria â€" almost 960,000 people â€" had received their first shot, up from 67.9 per cent this time last week.

In metropolitan Melbourne, 64.9 per cent of the eligible population had received one dose, up from 58.3 per cent the previous week.

You can see the first dose rate in your municipality using the maps below:

Of the 31 local government areas in the Melbourne metropolitan region, seven have already reached the 70 per cent first dose target: Banyule, Bayside, Boroondara, Glen Eira, Manningham, the Mornington Peninsula and Nillumbik.

In regional Victoria, there are 48 local government areas, but there are six that have not yet reached 70 per cent first doses: Baw Baw, Golden Plains, Latrobe, Mildura, Mitchell and Murrindindi.

Where vaccination is increasing

Over the past week, some of the biggest proportional increases in first doses have been in Melbourne’s north and west, in areas where COVID-19 case numbers have been surging:

In Wyndham, 8.2 per cent of the area’s eligible population got their first vaccine dose over the past week â€" that’s a total of 16,434 people.

And in Hume, there were 12,280 first doses recorded over the past week, which translates to about 6.8 per cent of the area’s eligible population.

But Hume, which currently has the highest active case rate in the state, has the second-lowest first dose rate of all 79 local government areas in Victoria. Of its eligible population of just over 180,000, about 99,000 (or 55 per cent) have received their first vaccine dose:

The area’s population also skews slightly younger than the rest of Melbourne, so a sizeable proportion of Hume residents in the 16-39 year-old age bracket would only have become eligible for a Pfizer vaccine dose relatively recently.

When will Victoria reach its 70 per cent first dose target

As of Monday morning, 66.82 per cent of the state’s 16+ population had received one vaccine dose, while 40.95 per cent were fully vaccinated.

Victoria is on track to reach 70 per cent of its population aged 16 and above having received their first vaccine dose on Friday, almost one week earlier than the state government’s original estimate.

The pace of the vaccine rollout has increased in Victoria over the past few weeks, and over the past week about 47,000 people a day on average have received their first dose.

It means the state will likely reach its 70 per cent target on September 17. Back when Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced the target on September 1, the state was on track to reach 70 per cent first doses on September 23.

When the 70 per cent first dose target is met, some of the changes will include the five-kilometre movement limit being extended to 10 kilometres and an extra hour of exercise being permitted each day.

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