COVID-19 Vaccination Information Evening
Bringing together our community to inform and prepare for the COVID-19 vaccination rollout
Pacific Health Plus in conjunction with Ministry of Pacific Peoples and Ministry of Health hosted a community fono last night for the Porirua region. The COVID-19 Vaccination Information Evening brought together the community to inform and prepare for the roll outs of vaccinations to our wider community.
It was fantastic to see a full house at this event with Dr Apisalome Talemaitoga, Dr Debbie Ryan, Mana MP Barbara Edmonds, Ministries of Health and Pacific Peoples, and our very own Pacific Health Plus Chairman Fiso John Fiso and the PHP team.
Thank you to Pacific Leaders Group representatives Siaosi Anamani for welcoming the community and MCing the evening, and Zechariah Reuelu for the closing encouragements. Thank you also to Pastor Teremoana Tauira for the opening and closing prayer, and to the students from Whitby Collegiate for being great helpers.
Chairman of PHP, Fiso John Fiso, opened the evening by stating the purpose of the fono and introduced speakers MP for Mana Barbara Edmonds, Dr Api, Dr Ryan, DHB representative Tagaloa Junior Ulu, and MOH and MPP teams.
Chairman of Pacific Health Plus, Fiso John Fiso
Key messages from the evening were:
The Pfizer vaccine is FREE and available to everyone aged 16 and over. It will help to protect New Zealand from COVID-19.
For the vaccine to be effective you must receive 2 DOSES.
There will be a specific location in Porirua where all COVID-19 vaccines will be administered. Decisions on this location will be made in coming weeks.
The vaccine is estimated to be available to the community from May/June.
When asked “is the vaccine safe?” Dr Api broke it down to 3 key points:
Clinical trials with over 40,000 people
Millions of doses already given overseas
NZ Med Safe approved
A Q&A session provided our Porirua Pacific community with an opportunity to ask Dr Api, Dr Ryan and Ministry of Health representatives hard-hitting questions like, “what happens if you can’t get to the vaccination location?”, “is it safe if you take other medications for health conditions like diabetes?”, “will the vaccine protect you from other COVID-19 strains?”, and “why can’t the vaccination roll out be any faster?”.
Answers to these questions and more information can be found on the following websites. More information will be advertised as the campaign rolls out to our wider community.
