March 25, 2022
Covid forces Māori service rethink
The Health Ministry is looking at ways to improve its Covid-19 Māori protection plan as cases soar.
Over the past two weeks, 77,000 Māori have reported getting the virus, and more than 200 have ended up in hospital.
John Whaanga, the deputy Director-General Maori, says the ministry has rolled out three Māori plans since Covid-19 hit Aotearoa in 2020 and committed $250 million, with another $27 million going to Māori providers in next month.
A lot of mahi has gone into the Māori protection plan but a lot more work still needs to be done.
He says there are still pockets of the country where it needs to do better to improve access to vaccines, but overall the challenge has improved services for Māori.
“If you look at the range of mobilised services we now have in place compared to two years ago, not only providing benefits for Covid but reaching out to those communities that have found it difficult in the past to access, the different ways we are delivering health services related to Covid is a huge improvement on where we were two years ago,” Mr Whaanga says.
Case numbers for Māori are rising in all DHB areas, particularly those with large rural areas and especially among tamariki and rangatahi.