Waipareira will be out in numbers on Monday to encourage whānau who have not yet been vaccinated to get the jab.
Along with the vaccination clinics at the Trusts Arena in Central Park Drive and Catherine Street, Henderson, Waipareira will bus nurses and vaccinators into west Auckland communities to make it simpler for whānau to be vaccinated.
Waipareira CEO John Tamihere said the low Māori uptake for vaccinations required new approaches. “Our community is the driver of what needs to happen and going into the community on buses to vaccinate is one way to get to our people,” said Tamihere.
“We went to the Rānui Caravan Park for a trial run on Thursday and were very pleased with the number of whānau who came to be vaccinated.
“Of the 50-odd residents, the majority wanted and were vaccinated. That was encouraging and showed our whānau were not afraid of getting vaccinated but through difficult circumstances could not get to a vaccination centre.
“Going to them in their hoods is one way to solve that issue.”
Some residents also asked if they could participate in the trial saliva testing programme which Waipareira will roll out across Tāmaki Makaurau.
“We took a number of saliva tests from around 25 residents of the caravan park and all came back negative within a 12-hour turnaround, which is also another encouraging sign.”
The Waipareira bus will be mobilised across west Auckland from Monday and whānau can find out where the bus is heading by following live streams via the Waipareira Facebook page.
The vaccination campaign will also be supported by an intensive radio and social media campaign.