Covid 19 coronavirus: Churches help get more Pasifika people vaccinated

Pasifika church leaders receive their first Covid-19 vaccination. Photo / RNZ

By RNZ

Research commissioned by the Ministry of Health shows that in March 59 per cent of Pasifika were prepared to be vaccinated, but a month later the figure had jumped to 79 per cent.

A GP with the Pacific health provider Fono, Malia Funaki, said health officials and churches had been working together.

"The church leaders have been attending as well as some of my other colleagues and talked to the church ministers and sometimes with the congregations to discuss the importance of getting vaccinated, the safety with this vaccine that we've got in New Zealand."

She said a lot of work had also gone into debunking false information about the Covid-19 vaccine.

About 70 per cent of Pacific Islanders attend church regularly, so leaders of those congregations were being reminded of the influential role they play as a vaccine messenger.

Earlier this month, Pacific church ministers stepped up to get their Covid-19 vaccinations at the South Seas Ōtara vaccination clinic and encouraged their congregations and communities to do the same.

Earlier this year, Manukau councillor Efeso Collins said he planned to help those on the fence about the vaccine in his South Auckland electorate.

He encouraged the importance of "a conversation after church ... with a coffee and a muffin to talk through distrust to make a difference".

On Wednesday, Lower Hutt held a Pacific Vaccination Festival Day which marked the start of the DHB's bid to vaccinate more than 5000 Pacific people and their families in the region.

Capital and Coast District Health Board has dropped the qualifying age of 65 down to 55 and older, for Māori and Pacific people and their households.

DHB Pacific people's health director Tagaloa Junior Ulu said it was about "equity" since it recognised that Pacific people tended to get illnesses sooner than the rest of the population.

- RNZ