COVID-19 vaccination among aged care residents to 31 December 2022
This section reports on COVID-19 vaccination among aged care residents who had a COVID-19 diagnosis up to 31 December 2022. Analysis of COVID-19 vaccination among all aged care residents was beyond the scope of this study. See the COVID-19 outbreaks in Australian residential aged care facilities weekly reports (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing 2025) for more information.
Figure 5.1 is an interactive chart where readers can explore differences in COVID-19 vaccination among aged care residents with a COVID-19 diagnosis, by dementia status and for selected population groups: sex, age group and region of residence (state or territory, remoteness area and socioeconomic area).
By 31 December 2022, among aged care residents with a COVID-19 diagnosis:
- 76% of residents with a dementia record and 80% with no dementia record had received at least 3 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine
- 16% and 13% had received 2 doses, respectively
- 7.0% and 6.1% had not received a COVID-19 vaccination, respectively (Figure 5.1, ‘Total’).
About 60% of residents with a COVID-19 diagnosis (with and without a dementia record) were unvaccinated during the pre-Omicron period compared with about 5% in the Omicron period (Figure 5.1).
It should be noted that 55% of residents who had their latest COVID-19 diagnosis in the pre-Omicron period had that diagnosis before COVID-19 vaccines were first available in February 2021 (Table S2.1). However, data are shown for the total pre-Omicron period because it is not possible to see when vaccines became available to each aged care facility in the COVID-19 Register.
Figure 5.1: Number and percentage of aged care residents with COVID-19 by number of COVID-19 vaccine doses at last COVID-19 diagnosis date, by COVID-19 period, dementia status and population group (to 31 December 2022)
A series of bar charts show that in the pre-Omicron period, around 37% of residents had received 2 or more COVID-19 vaccine doses. In the Omicron period, around 80% had received 3 or more doses.
Notes:
- Number of vaccine doses was calculated as the total number of COVID-19 vaccinations recorded on the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR) 14 days or more prior to a person's latest COVID-19 diagnosis. See Technical notes for further details.
- Counts were based on a resident’s latest COVID-19 diagnosis in each COVID-19 period. A resident may have had a COVID-19 diagnosis in both periods, so the sum of the periods does not equal the Total.
- Data were not available for Western Australia. Due to data confidentiality rules for small counts, State / Territory data in the pre-Omicron period are only shown for NSW and Victoria, and data from the Omicron period for Tasmania, the ACT and NT were suppressed where necessary.
- Analysis by socioeconomic area was based on the 2021 Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) quintiles, where 1 is the most disadvantaged area and 5 is the least disadvantaged area. The socioeconomic area of a person’s residential aged care facility may not be the same as the socioeconomic area/s they previously lived in.
- Remoteness areas outside Major cities were aggregated due to data confidentiality rules for small counts.
- Abbreviations: ACT: Australian Capital Territory, NSW: New South Wales, NT: Northern Territory, QLD: Queensland, SA: South Australia, TAS: Tasmania, VIC: Victoria.
For downloadable data tables, see Table S5.1 in Data tables (COVID-19 vaccination and antiviral use among aged care residents with a COVID-19 diagnosis).
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing (2025) COVID-19 outbreaks in Australian residential aged care facilities, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing website, accessed 5 May 2025.