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Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.
Photo: AFP
Iwi-run mobile testing clinics were credited with boosting the flu vaccination rates for Māori over 65, closing the gap between non-Māori and Māori vaccination rates from 12 to 9 percent.
These outreach services are crucial in the Tairāwhiti region, where many of the 25,000 Māori residents live in remote areas with limited access to health services, Turanga Health chief executive Reweti Ropiha said. Our approach here was that . we went into the communities, we worked alongside kaumātua, we had kaiāwhina connected to those communities and they disseminated the information, we worked alongside the marae committees we went in there a week, two weeks before [and] we got them involved in the logistics so it was a win-win situation and [then we] used those as mechanisms to get the information out - hence the uptake, he said.
Face-to-face contact will be key to connecting those invisible in mainstream services to the Covid-19 vaccine, Māori health leaders say.
Turanga Health chief executive Reweti Ropiha says people must be the focus of the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.
Photo: Supplied / LDR
Hopes for a people focus to the rollout of the vaccine have been emphasised by Māori and Pasifika leaders in Tairāwhiti, who say marae, churches and even door-knocking will be crucial to ensuring their people are vaccinated.
But they have also called on health authorities to consider how it will connect with those who are invisible , or not accessing health services.