The Government must release the week by week plans showing what the expected vaccination rates are for each District Health Board for their Māori and Pacific populations, National’s Covid-19 spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

“DHBs have supplied plans for how many vaccinations they expect to do each week in their area. These numbers have been built into the public information that the Ministry of Health has released.

“But answers to written questions reveal DHBs also have weekly plans for the expected number of vaccinations for Māori and Pacific populations in each of their areas. These plans have never been made public before and they should be.

“Transparency around the Government’s vaccination plans has been a problem since the start of the rollout and has only recently started to improve.

“Now it turns out the Government knows how many vaccinations for Māori and Pacific populations should be being done each week in each DHB but the public has no idea what those numbers are.

“Releasing this data will allow local populations and media demand more of DHBs that are not delivering where they should be.

“It is critical we get Māori and Pacific vaccination rates up and transparency over delivery would be a good place to start.”

You can read a copy of the answer to a Written Parliamentary Question (WPQ) here.