Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Te Tai Hauāuru MP urges Māori to set October 16 as first-jab deadline

Te Tai Hauāuru MP Adrian Rurawhe says whānau have a duty of care for each other. Photo / Bevan Conley

They're calling it Super Saturday, a National Day of Action for Covid-19 vaccination, and Te Tai Hauāuru MP Adrian Rurawhe is urging Māori to make October 16 the deadline to get their first injection.

"If we want to get everyone fully vaccinated by December, we need everyone to have their first dose by mid-October," Rurawhe said.

"It's been really challenging to get our people to come in to get vaccinated. The thinking behind having a Super Saturday, a national day of action, was to give people focus. This is the date that you need to get your injection by."

Rurawhe is calling on community leaders, local councillors, mayors, iwi leaders, parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters to help counter misinformation and apathy, and encourage whānau to get their first vaccine shot by October 16.

"Probably the most influential are our own whānau. So we've got a duty of care for each other to make sure that our whānau go and get vaccinated.

"This Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus is really difficult to handle and it's dangerous, especially for those who can't be vaccinated - and those who can't be vaccinated are our tamariki, our mokopuna under the age of 12 years old. They will become the most vulnerable."

Rurawhe says the importance of getting double-jabbed is shown by the news that only 3 per cent of those infected in the latest outbreak in Auckland were vaccinated.

"So those who are catching it are the unvaccinated, and that's how it's going to work in the future. If you're not vaccinated you'll have a much higher risk of catching it and that is terrible news for Māori.

"For Whanganui Māori, we're only just over 50 per cent [vaccinated] which is really low, and we need to lift that up to in the 90s. We're talking, in the Whanganui district, of around 6000 or 7000 Māori who are not vaccinated."