Māori vaccination numbers need to increase before our international borders reopen.
That’s the view of Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā co-leader, Dr Rawiri McKree Jansen.
Some 770,000 New Zealanders have been vaccinated to date but just 9% of them are Māori.
“Once again the Government’s approach has been to establish a vaccination programme that best suits the need and expectations of the non-Māori population,” says Dr Jansen.
Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā believes our borders must remain closed until there is sufficient vaccination protection in the Māori community.
It also wants government monitoring of the vaccination programmes to improve reporting by ethnicity, an issue it’s been pushing for more than a year.
“We are of the view that this is not being done and it appears that they have absolutely no intention of doing so. We are beyond frustrated about it,” Dr Jansen says.