2 Jan 2022

Auckland's Middle Eastern communities seek Covid-19 vaccination data

9:19 am on 2 January 2022

A group championing vaccinations among Auckland's Middle Eastern communities wants the government to provide more information on ethnic vaccination rates.

Vaccination Centre Sign

Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver

The Good Deed group is in the middle of a two-month communication campaign encouraging immigrant New Zealanders to get vaccinated.

Founder Anmar Taufeek said the group is a collection of female volunteers, mostly immigrants from Iraq.

She is leading the charge on the campaign, funded by the Ministry for Ethnic Communities under its Covid-19 Vaccine Uptake Fund.

Taufeek wanted the government to publish more information about the vaccination rates of minority groups.

The Ministry of Health currently groups ethnicities into Māori, Pacific, Asian and other, but Taufeek said she needed to see trends among ethnicities, ages, and DHBs.

"It's not easy to obtain such data and information," she said, "to know where to focus".

Taufeek said the group's limited resources would be better spent if it knew where the resources were most needed.

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