February 16, 2021
Get the jab, koro, Kahungunu call
Ngāti Kahungunu chair Ngahiwi Tomoana says the connections his rūnanga has built with its people will help with the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The first jabs will go into the arms of workers at the border and managed isolation facilities at the weekend, with health workers and the more vulnerable parts of the population next in line.
He says during the first COVID lockdown the rūnanga worked got help out to not just Māori but Pasifika and other communities that government agencies struggled to reach.
It will use community pressure to drive uptake.
"We're urging our younger members to urge their kaumātua to go and get a vaccine, 'kaua e mataku, kaua e whakamā, you are our role models and we need to preserve you.' Some of those kaumātua are saying 'don't give it to me, give it to my moko,' and we say 'it doesn't apply to under-16s, so you go and jolly well have it.' That is the sort of language we are using with our people," Mr Tomoana says.
An announcement on whether the current COVID-19 alert levels will be lifted or continued will be made at 4.30 this afternoon.
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