Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Northland's 90 % target still 43,000 second jabs away

Northland still has a mountain to climb to hit the Government's 90 per cent vaccination target. Photo / Peter de Graaf

More than 43,000 Northlanders need to get their second dose of Pfizer vaccine to lift the region to the Government's 90 per cent fully vaccinated target, according to the latest Health Ministry figures.

Some of those are waiting out the minimum three-week period between jabs, but the data also shows just under 35,000 Northlanders have yet to receive a first dose.

Māori health providers told the Advocate earlier this week they were optimistic about hitting the 90 per cent target but the numbers show they still have a mountain to climb.
Meanwhile, health officials confirmed last night two further cases in Northland, bringing the total so far to 10.

The Northland DHB advised the Ministry of Health yesterday of the cases in Southern Kaipara, which are in the same household and at this stage have no known links to the current Northland cluster.

The pair were tested on October 27 and have been isolating with public health oversight.
Investigations are under way to determine connections to the current outbreak, further details around their movements and to identify any locations of interest.

Earlier yesterday, the Ministry of Health had reported one new case who is a household member of someone who had already tested positive and was isolating.

The Northland cluster is centred around a woman and her daughter who returned home to Mangamuka from Auckland.
They had tested negative before leaving the city, had travel exemptions and co-operated fully with contact tracers.
Northland District Health Board reported taking 667 swabs on Thursday at testing sites in Kaitaia, Rawene, Kerikeri, Ōhaeawai, Kawakawa, Dargaville and Whangārei.

As of yesterday, 63 per cent of eligible Northlanders aged 12 and over had received both vaccinations and 79 per cent had received one. Of New Zealand's district health board areas, only Tairawhiti has a lower fully vaxxed rate (62 per cent).

New Zealand-wide, the fully vaccinated rate is 72 per cent while the first-dose rate is 87 per cent.

District health board figures show Northland Māori are trailing other ethnic groups with 44 per cent fully vaccinated and 62 per cent single-dosed.

Health Ministry figures are slightly higher — 45 and 66 per cent respectively — which may be due in part to using different population figures.

Ministry data also shows 22,511 Northland Māori have yet to receive their second dose and 12,137 are missing altogether.

The fully-vaccinated rate for Pasifika peoples in Northland is 57 per cent but their first-dose rate of 80 per cent is now outstripping the regional average.

A detailed breakdown by area shows the highest jab rates in Northland are in prosperous east coast towns such as Russell (79 per cent fully vaxxed).

The exception is North Cape, which has a high jab rate despite being largely rural and Māori. That has been put down to the local Māori health provider's marae-based approach to vaccination, plus strong awareness of the impact of the 1918 flu pandemic.

Northland's lowest fully-vaccinated rates are in Waima (37.2 per cent) and Peria (44.2 per cent).

Last week the Government set up a $120 million fund to boost Māori vaccination rates and help communities prepare for the new Covid-19 Protection Framework, which will replace the current alert level system.

Associate Health Minister Peeni Henare, of Moerewa, said despite a recent jump in vaccination rates Māori were still lagging behind, particularly in younger age groups.

"We need to pull out all the stops to ensure whānau are protected ... We know the recent lift in vaccination rates is the direct result of funding Māori providers and of Māori leadership efforts at a regional and national level.

"From hāngi and vouchers to walk-in clinics and vax buses, partnerships with iwi, local communities and businesses, communities going door-to-door, vaccinations on sports fields and at kura — we've seen what works and this fund will support more of it," Henare said.

Former Cabinet Minister Shane Jones, however, was sceptical about the new fund.

Given the scale of the challenge involved in getting Northland up to 90 per cent, and the ''sluggishness'' with which Māori were taking up the jab, it would work only if the funding was spent going door-to-door, street-by-street delivering vaccinations, he said.

''You need shoe leather and perseverance ... in my view that's the only way we are going to find the missing 20,000 Māori.''

It was a lesson he learned in the 2005 general election, which he believed Helen Clark won on the strength of a massive door-knocking campaign to woo apathetic voters.

The same approach was needed with people reluctant to get vaccinated, Jones said.

Unless vaccination increased rapidly and the Auckland border reopened, cash-strapped Northland businesses would not survive.

''The lack of urgency in the whole rollout bewilders me. Businesses are desperate for things to open and for things to open the jab rate must grow considerably. We need to go to the level of people's homes and workplaces and incentivise them to get jabbed.''

Jones cited Rugby for Life's Take Two for the Team, which rewards sports teams whose players and supporters are jabbed, as an initiative that worked for hard-to-reach groups in rural Northland.