February 09, 2021
Maori critical for COVID vaccine roll out
National Party health spokesperson Shane Reti says Māori health providers will be critical to the successful roll out of the COVID-19 vaccine.
He says the Government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic has been good but not great, and National was still concerned about the way it was handing the managed isolation and quarantine hotels.
He says when it comes to the vaccine roll out, Māori providers have a unique reach into communities the mainstream struggles to reach, including rural and remote communities.
"I think this a golden opportunity for the iwi and iwi providers to demonstrate the resources they can bring and the reach they can have. To do that they need to be well funded, they need to have capacity built and assessed and then watch how good I believe our iwi and Māori health providers can be in helping the coronavirus roll out," Dr Reti says.
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