The words of Waikato Pasifika health advocate Mareta Matenga, who is helping lead a new Pan Pacific Community Hub in Hamilton.

“I am supporting the development of an integrated wellbeing service delivery model which will see different K’aute Pasifika-owned entities operating seamlessly in the same space,” Matenga said.

“This involves me supporting Leaupepe Rachel Karalus, K’aute Pasifika CEO, to support the development of this model, by working alongside other consultants who are also working on the development of the hub.

“My role is specific to the actual services that will work out of the new hub and preparing the team to transition well to the hub.”

The Pan Pacific Community Hub will include an integrated health centre, a stand-alone early learning facility and an open fale-style community space.

The fale is expected to open in September, followed by the childcare and early learning centre in November. The wellbeing component is set to open early next year.

Free or low cost services
The hub is expected to offer free or low cost services in health, social, employment, housing and education.

K’aute Pasifika said the hub would enable the trust to better support the holistic wellbeing of families using Pacific models of care.

It will also increase connectedness and the sense of identity, and celebrate and support academic, sporting, creative and leadership potential and achievements.

Born and raised in Kirikiriroa (Hamilton), Matenga’s parents Ere (nee Marsters, Pamati Island) and the late George Ford (Vaipae, Aitutaki Island), together with her eight siblings have dedicated their lives to serving the Hamilton Cook Island Community and their Pacific Islands Presbyterian faith community.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Island New Zealanders are now 90 percent fully vaccinated against covid-19, and a public health expert is urging them to keep up that momentum in the New Year.

In a daily briefing, the Ministry of Health said 90 percent of eligible Pacific people in New Zealand had now had both vaccines.

Associate Professor Collin Tukuitonga from the University of Auckland said that is a tremendous effort and the threat of omicron is the next challenge.

He hopes the community embraces booster shots to guard against the more infectious variant.

“It looks as if the two doses doesn’t give you enough protection for omicron, and the most important priority now is to get people to get their boosters as soon as that’s possible.”

He hopes as many regions move into lower levels of restrictions in the government’s Framework Protection system people will still stay vigilant, contact trace and get tested.

“There’s a risk that people might have gone back into a lower level of alertness, so I would hope that we maintain that [alertness].

Ramp up once again
“In mid-late January I think we’re going to have to ramp up once again in respect of rolling out the vaccine for the young ones.”

Children aged between 5 and 11 become eligible for covid-19 vaccinations in mid-January, and those 12 and older are already eligible.

Dr Tukuitonga said rolling out vaccinations for children could also be a challenge, and parents may need encouragement.

“Parents are perhaps less certain about the benefits and more concerned about risks. So every effort is going to be needed to get the vaccination rollout in children up to the kind of levels that is needed.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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An Auckland councillor says he is astounded by the lack of cultural awareness shown by the authorities towards Māori and Pacific communities this far into the pandemic.

Manukau ward councillor Fa’anana Efeso Collins said covid-19 has become a Māori and Pacific outbreak, and South Auckland in particular is bearing the brunt.

He said calls over the past year for Māori and Pacific representatives to be at the decision-making table had been largely ignored.

Collins said those designing the response seem to have little knowledge of the communities, and it was showing.

“[We should have] people who are on the ground who understand our communities — right from the very beginning our request was that they be around the table that makes the decisions.

“And so these decisions are so far detached and disconnected from the realities on the ground.”

Fa’anana said the fact the government’s process for dealing with people in self-isolation was not practical was a glaring example.

Two patients died at home
This week two patients with covid-19 died while isolating at home.

On Friday a man in his fifties died in a Mount Eden apartment block after discharging himself from hospital on Wednesday.

And a 40-year-old man died while self-isolating in Manukau on Wednesday.

The cause of death has not been determined in either case, but the Health Ministry said the deaths were being considered as part of a wider systemic review it was carrying out with Auckland district health boards (DHBs).

Fa’anana said authorities were warned self-isolation would not work, and that for many families in South Auckland, it’s next to impossible.

“You know, the Ministry of Health says everyone gets sent an email. I think it’s time to get real — none of us read emails.

“And so I think that’s the level of lack of intelligence that perhaps we’re seeing from the Ministry of Health because they’re not on the ground, they don’t understand our communities.”

Battling the Health Ministry
“Fa’anana said health reforms cannot come soon enough.

Fa’anana’s criticisms come as Whānau Ora is battling the Health Ministry in court to try get access to personal data on unvaccinated Māori released to them.

The organisation wants to use the data for directing campaigns to increase vaccination rates among Māori.

The ministry has agreed to provide some of the data sought. It agreed to supply individual’s vaccination status for previous clients of Whānau Ora services, and anonymous vaccination status data to street level, to show unvaccinated areas in communities.

While the ministry has so far refused to hand over the full personalised data, after a High Court ruling this week it agreed to work with Whānau Ora to identify places where “outreach to Māori is most needed”, and to identify what data sharing was needed in those cases.

South Auckland health workers going door-to-door
Manurewa-Papakura ward councillor Daniel Newman said the ministry’s vaccination campaign had fallen short and left too many people vulnerable to the virus.

He said the government’s failure to set vaccine targets for Māori was already having consequences, and that is showing in hospitalisation statistics.

In his ward, frontline healthcare workers have resorted to door-to-door visits in an effort to reach vulnerable and vaccine-hesitant residents.

However, that could potentially expose them to people who are infectious with the virus and are isolating at home, he said.

He called on the government to protect healthworkers by letting them know where people are isolating at home with covid-19.

“It’s really important that we stay safe, because not only do we need to protect our own health, but we can’t become conduits for covid-19 ourself.

“The important thing for us is that we have enough scale that we have the ability to get to enough people as soon as possible.”

He said the door-to-door approach was necessary: “We’re in a race against covid-19 which is seeding in those streets, we need to get people protected before they become unwell.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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A vaccine certificate will be central to the new framework.

The system will involve three settings – green, orange and red.

“If you want to be guaranteed that no matter the setting that we are in, that you can go to bars, restaurants and close-proximity businesses like a hairdresser, then you will need to be vaccinated,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told media today.

She was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins and Associate Health Minister Peeni Henare as the government also announced enhanced:

Ardern said the vaccination certificates would allow businesses to be able to open and operate at any level.

Targeted local lockdowns
If cases start to climb in areas with lower vaccination rates in lower-income communities, much more highly targeted and localised lockdowns could be used if needed, she said.

The red setting would allow hospitality to open with vaccine certificates, but gathering limits and physical distancing, masks and other public health measures would be used.

“This will still feel like a huge amount of freedom relative to what Auckland has now,” Ardern said.

Today’s covid-19 strategy announcement. Video: RNZ News

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A group of doctors have hit the phones to support Pasifika families who have tested positive for covid-19 and been transferred into managed isolation.

The chairperson of the Royal New Zealand College of GPs’ Pasifika chapter, Monica Liva, said about half the people infected with the virus in Auckland were Pasifika.

She contacted Pasifika doctors who could talk to people in their first language and hear any concerns they might have.

“It’s also to take off the load off the MIQ medical team, so that they can focus on the urgent covid-19 needs,” Dr Liva said.

Dr Liva said she had been heartened by the number of GPs agreeing to help.

TikTok take-up for vaccines
The North Island iwi Ngāti Porou have launched a covid-19 vaccination campaign aimed at rangatahi using the social media platform TikTok.

The video challenge calls on young people to encourage their whānau to get vaccinated.

Ngāti Porou’s Taryne Papuni said TikTok was a natural first pick to get the message across.

“That’s one of the mediums that they’re always on, always on the TikTok or the Instagram.

“We thought yeah, we can reach a lot of our people, a lot of our young ones that way and hope that the young ones will actually lead for their elders.”

Earlier this week, Ngāti Porou hosted a vaccinations clinic at Te Poho o Rawiri Marae.

There have also been multiple events on this weekend targeting Pasifika vaccination rates.

18 new community cases in NZ
The Health Ministry reported 18 new community cases of covid-19 in New Zealand today, with all but two epidemiologically linked to previous cases.

There was no media conference today. In a statement, the ministry said there were now a total of 1165 community cases associated with the latest outbreak of the delta variant of the virus.

It said 934 of Auckland’s 1148 cases had now recovered.

The ministry said there were five cases in the past fortnight that were still not linked to previous cases.

The 16 linked cases reported today are all in isolation at home or in MIQ.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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Auckland’s move to alert level 3 has also triggered speculation about whether the national covid-19 elimination strategy has failed or is even being abandoned. While the New Zealand government denies it, others clearly believe it is at least a possibility.

The uncertainty is troubling. If elimination fails or is abandoned, it would suggest we have not learnt the lessons of history, particularly when it comes to our more vulnerable populations.

In 1918, the mortality rate among Māori from the influenza pandemic was eight times that of Europeans. The avoidable introduction of influenza to Samoa from Aotearoa resulted in the deaths of about 22 percent of the population.

Similar observations were seen in subsequent influenza outbreaks in Aotearoa in 1957 and 2009 for both Māori and Pasifika people. These trends are well known and documented.

And yet, despite concerns we could see the same thing happen again, there have been repeated claims that an elimination strategy cannot succeed. Some business owners, politicians and media commentators have called for a change in approach that would see Aotearoa “learn to live with the virus”.

This is premature and likely to expose vulnerable members of our communities to the disease. Abandoning the elimination strategy while vaccine coverage rates remain low among the most vulnerable people would be reckless and irresponsible.

In short, more Māori and Pasifika people would die.

Far better will be to stick to the original plan that has served the country well, lift vaccination coverage rates with more urgency, and revise the strategy when vaccination rates among Māori and Pasifika people are as high as possible — no less than 90 percent.

Least worst options
After 18 months of dealing with the pandemic, it’s important to remember that Aotearoa’s response has been based on sound science and strong political leadership. The elimination strategy has proved effective at home and been admired internationally.

Of course, it has come with a price. In particular, the restrictions have had a major impact on small businesses and personal incomes, student life and learning, and well-being in general.

Many families have needed additional food parcels and social support, and there are reports of an increasing incidence of family harm.

The latest delta outbreak has also seen the longest level 4 lockdown in Auckland, with at least two further weeks at level 3, and there is no doubt many people are struggling to cope with the restrictions. The “long tail” of infections will test everyone further.

There is no easy way to protect the most vulnerable people from the life-threatening risk of covid-19, and the likely impact on the public health system if it were to get out of control. The alternative, however, is worse.

We know Māori and Pasifika people are most at risk of infection from covid-19, of being hospitalised and of dying from the disease.

Various studies have confirmed this, but we also must acknowledge why — entrenched socioeconomic disadvantage, overcrowded housing and higher prevalence of underlying health conditions.

More than 50 percent of all new cases in the current outbreak are among Pasifika people and the number of new cases among Māori is increasing. If and when the pandemic is over, the implications of these socioeconomic factors must be part of any review of the pandemic strategy.

Lowest vaccination rates, highest risk
Furthermore, the national vaccination rollout has again shown up the chronic entrenched inequities in the health system. While the rollout is finally gaining momentum, with more and better options offered by and for Māori and Pasifika people, their comparative vaccination rates have lagged significantly.

Community leaders and health professionals have long called for Māori and Pasifika vaccination to be prioritised. But the official rhetoric has not been matched by the reality, as evidenced by our most at-risk communities still having the lowest vaccination coverage rates in the country.

Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā (the National Māori Pandemic Group) and the Pasifika Medical Association have repeatedly called for their communities to be empowered and resourced to own, lead and deliver vaccination rollouts in ways that work for their communities.

Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā have also said Auckland should have remained at level 4, with the border extended to include the areas of concern in the Waikato.

As has been pointed out by those closest to those communities, however, their advice has consistently not been heeded. The resulting delays only risk increasing the need for the kinds of lockdowns and restrictions everyone must endure until vaccination rates are higher.

There is a reason we do not hear many voices in Māori and Pasifika communities asking for an end to elimination. Left unchecked, covid-19 disproportionately affects minority communities and the most vulnerable.

“Living with the virus” effectively means some people dying with it. We know who many of them would be.

Dr Collin Tukuitonga is associate dean Pacific and associate professor of public health, University of Auckland. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

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