Wednesday, 28 July 2021, 3:15 pmPress Release: Southern District Health Board
Residents on Rakiura Stewart Island have turned out in
force today (28 July) for their COVID-19 vaccinations at the
first of a two-day COVID-19 clinic offering vaccinations to
the 385 eligible people on the island.
Within the
first two and a half hours, more than 100 people had been
vaccinated, with no sign of demand slowing.
The
clinic, set up at the Stewart Island Community Centre, has 4
vaccinating booths and is run by 12 staff, led by nurse
practitioner Nadine Goldsmith, of Awarua Whnau
Services.
Were so pleased that many residents
are coming down here to take up this opportunity of getting
vaccinated here where they live, she said.
Two
Invercargill-based Mori health providers, Awarua Whnau
Services and Ng Kete Mtauranga Pounamu Charitable Trust,
have partnered with Wellsouth Primary Heath Network to
deliver the vaccine to those aged 16 years or over on the
island, which is 30km south of South Island and home to many
more kiwi of the feathered variety than human. The drop-in
clinics are running from midday to 7pm today and
tomorrow.
Its important that every single corner
of Aotearoa New Zealand gets the same access to vaccine and
so our team was delighted to be able to come down here,
bring the vaccine, bring all the resources we need and come
down here to offer it to the community, Goldsmith
said.
The hope is that as many people as possible
from Rakiura will come in and receive dose one of their
vaccination.
Yesterday afternoon (27 July), 20
locals were vaccinated as part of the wet run to
ensure the clinic was ready to open its doors to the general
public today. Also, a public information session about the
Pfizer vaccination was held last night by Southern District
Health Board medical officer of health Dr Susan Jack to
answer residents questions.
Johnny Miller, who has
lived on Rakiura for the past two years, was pleased to get
vaccinated on the island rather than needing to head to the
mainland and said it was a painless experience.
It
was real quick, the ladies were nice just come and get
it done. Its pretty easy, the 45-year-old
said.
I was always going to get vaxxed. My
next-door neighbour is the local nurse and hes a
fantastic guy and he was just saying Just do it if
you want to go somewhere, just do it.
He
believed a recent false positive case of COVID-19 on the
island made residents more eager to get
vaccinated.
I definitely think its good to be
protected. If we got an outbreak here, itd be
terrible.
Stewart Island Health Committee chair
Mary Chittenden said she chose to get vaccinated to protect
her family and her community.
Tourism boomed on the
island last summer, which was positive for its economy but
also increased the risk of COVID-19 reaching its shores, she
said.
I think theres an element of relief
probably within the community to know that we havent been
forgotten being an isolated rural community, but also to
know that in the absence of that more advanced medical care,
that we do have something thats going to protect
us.
The more people that are vaccinated on this
island, the safer our community is more people in all
the communities of New Zealand, the safer the country
is.
Southern District Health Board COVID-19 Vaccine
Rollout Incident Controller Hamish Brown said it was
wonderful to see such a great turnout to the clinics
first day.
Its great to be able to provide the
community on Stewart Island with access to the COVID-19
vaccine right here where they live, he
said.
This is a whole community approach and the
fantastic effort from the team on the ground has led to a
very smooth operation.
A second dose clinic will
run on the island in mid-August to ensure residents are
fully vaccinated.
Footage:https://www.dropbox.com/s/2xrtxon91qfzzgc/Stewart_Island_Ready_to_use.mov?dl=0
© Scoop Media
Residents on Rakiura Stewart Island have turned out in force today (28 July) for their COVID-19 vaccinations at the first of a two-day COVID-19 clinic offering vaccinations to the 385 eligible people on the island. Within the first two and a half hours, …
