COVID-19 had a significant impact on lives in Aotearoa New Zealand, and presented unique challenges for ethnic communities.

To help support our communities through this challenging time, the Ministry for Ethnic Communities partnered with Manatū Hauora - Minisiry of Health and community orgnisations to both educate and vaccinate throughout the pandemic.

Our priority was to shield ethnic communities from the threat of COVID-19 by building immunity and resilience against the virus through vaccination. We did this through a mix of funding, outreach, education, and dialogue.Through strong partnerships between the Ministry of Health and community organisations, the Ministry was able to drive vaccine uptake within our communities. These partnerships were crucial to protecting our people from COVID-19 and providing them with reliable information.

By building strong alliances across the community, we developed trust and connections with Government agencies and delivered better health outcomes for our ethnic communities.

We were able to provide funding to several ethnic community organisations across Aotearoa New Zealand in support of the vaccination roll-out. As a direct result of this funding approximately 7,000 people received first and second doses, which in turn helped Aotearoa / New Zealand reach the 90% vaccination target by Christmas 2021.

In 2022 we continued encouraging ethnic communities to maintain strong immunity by getting the vaccine booster. This initiative had two aims: to educate, and to vaccinate.

Because of COVID-19 settings changes, mixed messages and rising misinformation, booster hesitancy was high. To alleivate these fears, and increase booster uptake, our approach needed to be informative, accessible,  and educational. We had to provide people with accuarte and reliable information to make them feel comfortable about getting the booster.

We know that COVID-19 continues to have long-term effects on the health and well-being of our communities. The need to educate remains important, and we must continue to foster the strong community connections we made during the pandemic.

In the coming months we’ll be releasing a series of health videos to further support our communities and increase awareness of the available health services in Aotearoa New Zealand. 

For more information, and to see the full report from our Covid initiatives, please visit www.ethniccommunities.govt.nz