Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern visits Hastings health centres in bid to encourage Covid-19 vaccine uptake

Friday, 8 October 2021

Outside the Hastings Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga drive-thru vaccination centre, cars lined up on a drizzly Friday morning, but when the prime minister arrived, faces were pressed against windows and phones whipped out of pockets.

By midday, there was a long line of cars queued outside the centre.

Jacinda Ardern​ along with other Labour MPs including Kiri Allan​, Anna Lorck​ and Meka Whaitiri​ walked through the centre speaking to frontline vaccination staff.

Her presence was part of a fleeting visit to Hawke’s Bay to the centre in Hastings and one in Flaxmere before she headed to Gisborne to open the Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival.

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**

Her visit was much to the delight of the 12-year-old girl who was hesitant at first to get her jab. When the Prime Minister offered to hold her hand, her nerves melted.

“Thank you so much for that, only you would have convinced me,” she said to Ardern.

Ministry of Health figures show that only 29.9 per cent of west Flaxmere had been fully vaccinated and 37.3 percent of south Flaxmere had been fully vaccinated.

In west Flaxmere 21.8 per cent of Māori were fully vaccinated, and 27.5 in south Flaxmere.

Ardern said the purpose of the visit was to push an “absolute focus on promoting the vaccine progress across New Zealand” and hearing from health providers on how the Government could assist their efforts.

“We need make sure that every corner of New Zealand is protected, and the best protection we can provide is the vaccine.”

Ardern said she was focusing on areas where health officials were “working incredibly hard” to increase vaccine rates.

“Some of the areas we’re visiting have had lower rates, and that’s not through anyone’s fault. Everyone is working so hard. It’s just what can we do to support one another.”

When asked about the “disappointingly low” vaccination rates among Māori , Ardern said rates among older Māori citizens “were really high”.

“That tells us our kaumātua and kuia are being vaccinated.”

Ardern said it was now about reaching rangatahi as well, which “means making sure that our messages answer their questions and that we’ve got trusted people that they trust, and that we hear what it is that’s making them hesitant”.

“Every single vaccine counts,” Ardern said.

The hesitation was evident as the Prime Minister then travelled onto Totara Health in Flaxmere as residents waited in their cars at the drive-thru vaccination centre.

Kruze Tay​ and Zhane Lambert​ were feeling positive about getting the vaccine.

“I know quite a few people who don’t want it, but I think there’s quite a few conspiracy theories out there,” Lambert said.

Tay said the Prime Minister’s visit “definitely helped” and it was good to see “so many people lined up”.

Totara Health Katje Musgrave​ said there were lots of people in Flaxmere who were “vaccine hesitant”.

“A lot of people are concerned about the newness of the vaccine, but what we want to get across is that it’s been very well vetted in the past year across the world. There’s been a lot of research behind the actual science of the vaccine and when I talk to people about that it seems to be reassuring to them”.

“There are side effects, but they’re exquisitely rare, and they’re manageable most of the time. Covid-19 itself can cause much worse effects than the vaccine”.

Musgrave said the Prime Minister’s visit “meant a lot” and she was grateful that she “took the time to come here”.

Sammie Harris​ and her family were thrilled when Ardern and Kiri Allan causally chatted to them through her car window.

Her daughter Maia Harris-Slade​ was still on the fence about the vaccine, and went to the centre so she could watch the process.

After a chat with Ardern she said “she felt pretty good, but was still having a think”.

Harris said there was “a lot of uncertainty in the community” and had “de-friended a lot of people” due to their anti-vaccination stance.

The Prime Minister will travel to Ruatoria on Saturday to also visit health staff.