Iwi asked to help raise Taranaki's low vaccination rates

6:03 pm on 19 September 2021

The government has met with Taranaki iwi about the region lagging behind in its vaccination roll-out.

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Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

As of Wednesday last week only 27.7 percent of the region's eligible population were fully vaccinated - the lowest in the country.

Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall says it's not enough to have a high national vaccine average and individual areas need to be protected.

"Minister Little had a meeting with Taranaki iwi I think on Friday, in order to make sure that we had identified any concerns that they had and how we could work better with them.

"We are in constant contact with the district health board about how that roll-out is going."

As of yesterday, 72 percent of the national eligible population had received their first dose and 37 percent were fully vaccinated.

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