August 25, 2021
Maori vaccination levels tracking age expectations
The Prime Minister says there’s no cause to panic about the level of Māori COVID vaccinations.
Māori pandemic response group Te Roopu Whakakaupapa Urutā and other medical organisations have called for more effort to be put into raising the number of Māori getting their jabs.
Jacinda Ardern says she’s keen to see faster uptake, but it can’t be said there is any delivery failure at this stage.
"Because of our age cohorts and the fact we have been moving down in age brackets and we know we have a younger Māori and Pasifika population, that's part of the reason the numbers look like that, but when you break it down by age bracket we are around 78 per cent of over 65s having received their first dose amongst the Māori population – really close to exactly what we are seeing in the entire population," she says.
Ms Ardern says there is a need to lift the pace with Māori in the 55 to 64 year age band, who are about 58 per cent vaccinated.
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