A push is underway this week to increase Covid-19 testing in Māori and Pacific communities.
Community testing clinics are currently being run in Taranaki, Tairawhiti and Northland in a welcome initiative for residents in the north.
One of Northland’s remote Māori communities, in Waikere, is among the areas receiving extra testing as part of the push.
Waikere, a 30-minute drive from Kawakawa, has no internet or phone coverage.
Ngāti Hine Health's Dr Tamara Birchall said there are many barriers faced by the local community hoping to get tested.
“A lot of our whānau out here can't access the testing station. There's barriers to health - a lot of them don't have a vehicle to get into town,” Dr Birchall said.
The Northland District Health Board is currently working alongside community health providers setting up mobile clinics. It’s hoped a further nine will be made available around the north.
Ngāti Hine Health nurse practitioner Polly Brennan added that the Māori community is "a bit communal", so "a few bubbles do get popped every now and then."
Māori make up the majority of testing in Northland. The area has had 27 cases of coronavirus so far, 30 per cent of which are Māori.
Northland DHB CEO Nick Chamberlain said it’s “vital” the Māori community is tested amid the pandemic.
“Certainly in the last pandemic, over 100 years ago, they really had significantly poorer outcomes,” Mr Chamberlain said.
Pacific groups are also vulnerable to Covid-19, with leaders in the South Auckland suburb of Ōtara today encouraging people to get tested.
Pacific Leadership Forum chairman Teleiai Edwin Puni said many community leaders were turned away from testing stations after failing to meet the criteria as a potential Covid-19 case.
“A lot of Pacific people live in overcrowded [homes], extended family living," Mr Puni said.
"The Prime Minister is saying get tested, get tested."
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