Te Whatu Ora - Taranaki position statement on COVID-19 vaccination
As a country we have made significant changes to our day-to-day life since the COVID-19 virus emerged. The availability of vaccine and a high proportion of our population fully vaccinated means we can have a world where the presence of the virus does not mean the level of disruptions we have experienced to date.
Vaccination is a crucial part of the New Zealand public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is through successful vaccination programmes that many infectious diseases have been eliminated and severity reduced, COVID-19 is no different.
Our priority is to make sure everyone in Taranaki aged 5 years and over has free, fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. To achieve this, we continue to collaborate with our health providers, our doctors, pharmacies and hauora providers to deliver an equitable and effective vaccination programme to our community.
Te Whatu Ora Taranaki provides essential services during each alert level and we encourage all our employees, contractors and other partners to protect themselves, their patients and the wider community by getting their COVID-19 vaccination. All DHB employees have an ethical and professional obligation to protect and promote the health of patients and the public, and to participate in community health efforts.
We strongly recommend that all eligible members of our Taranaki community take up the opportunity to be vaccinated so that life in our region can benefit from a fully vaccinated population. As a region that has strong trade links to both the Waikato and Auckland our Taranaki business community welcomes those from out of our region to visit every day, as well as friends and whānau across the country who also love to visit - for this to continue, everyone is encouraged to support our 90%+ vaccination drive to get our community protected.