Covid 19 coronavirus Delta outbreak: Northland Pasifika leader urges his community to get vaccinated

Northland Pasifika leader Maualaivao Ueligitone Sasagi is urging the Pasifika community to get Covid vaccinated, with this drive through vaccination centre in Whangārei.

A Northland-based national Pasifika leader is urging his community to get Covid-19 vaccinated.

Maualaivao Ueligitone Sasagi, a lay preacher and Samoan high chief, said Pasifika people needed to take heed of the science behind the virus and its management.

Northland Pasifika vaccination rates are among the region's lowest.

Mangawhai-based Sasagi is a lay preacher for Ekalesia Faapototoga Kerisiano Samoa (EFKS) - the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa.

This is the New Zealand Samoan community's biggest stretching from Auckland to Invercargill. He typically travels around New Zealand in his preaching role.

Sasagi is also a former board member of Northland's Fale Pasifika Te Taitokerau and Kaipara District Council major project manager.

He said the science clearly showed the importance of vaccination against Covid-19. This was particularly the case with New Zealand's more infectious Delta outbreak.

Sasagi was vaccinated in Dargaville in April.

"I felt happy," Sasagi said.

He said the Government needed to do more to work directly with Pasifika church leaders as part of boosting vaccination for this community.

Mangawhai-based Pasifika leader Maualaivao Ueligitone Sasagi urges vaccination for his people

Sasagi said Aotearoa's Pasifika people were strongly connected to their churches, in a way some from outside that community might not fully appreciate.

Pasifika lives were intimately connected to their faith, which encompassed and guided all they did.

But Sasagi said in the case of Covid-19, vaccination was needed to supplement that faith.

Pasifika people urgently needed to get vaccinated, now. It was a critical thing to do, along with the other Covid-19 management measures such as mask wearing and social distancing that still needed to be continued, even after being vaccinated.

He said leaders of Northland's different Pasifika communities needed to encourage their people along these lines. Faith alone was not enough in fighting Covid-19, particularly Delta.

He said the Delta variant's much more infectious nature made vaccination particularly important for Pasifika people across New Zealand.

The Pasifika way of life was communal. People needed to get vaccinated and make sure they observed all necessary rules, at each lockdown level, he said.

This meant putting off going out visiting uncles, aunties, cousins and not having family members visiting in reverse at the toughest level 4 lockdown.

"We are communal people. We like to visit our cousins, uncles, aunties, our children," Sasagi said.

"But what we are told for now is that you must stay at home. You can't go and visit because your bubble is at your home.

"Despite the Pasifika value of communal living, we can't exercise that at the moment if we are trying to control the virus."

He said gathering at church, sharing food and entertainment was one of the main ways Pasifika preserved their cultures.

"But not right now, we can't have church services or gatherings. We need to respect that.

"Keep in your bubble. Just be patient and adhere to what we are being told to do," Sasagi said.

Meeting virtually provided a different way of being communal during lockdown, he said.