Covid-19 scare spurs on the vaccine-hesitant to get jab in Coromandel Town

Thursday, 19 August 2021

Vivian Selby waits to get vaccinated at the pop-up vaccination clinic next to the testing station. She’s changed her mind about vaccinations.

“Everybody who knows me knows I don’t believe in drugs, they know I’m anti these things,” Vivian Selby says.

The Coromandel Town resident admits she usually doesn’t agree with vaccinations, including the flu vaccine, but recent events forced her to change her mind.

“I thought I might regret it if I don’t get it and then something happens, so I better go and have a go.”

The Coromandel is known in some sectors for its alternative and relaxed lifestyles, but news a 58-year-old Covid-19-infected man visited 13 locations in the tight-knit community has caused anxiety.

And a regional health leader says this recent Delta outbreak has smashed complacency in an area which previously had some of the lowest rates of the flu vaccine in the country.

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Shontae McLean said she initially saw no need to get vaccinated, but changed her mind following news an infected man came to town.

News of a vaccination clinic in Coromandel Town car park off Woollams Ave travelled fast on Thursday morning, as the Government reinstated nationwide vaccinations following a brief pause.

As of Thursday afternoon, there were no community cases in the Coromandel region. All 11 new community cases are in Auckland and being transferred to MIQ. This grows the outbreak to 21 active cases. Nonetheless, Coromandel residents weren’t taking any chances.

Health workers in blue PPE gear called through car windows to people queueing for swabs – vaccinations were available to those without symptoms, or who weren't at high-risk of contracting the virus through their movements or contacts.

By early afternoon on Thursday, 60 people had already been vaccinated, staff said.

Many were those who had not planned to get the vaccine before.

Selby told Stuff she is highly suspicious of medicines, but all her family and children, including those in Australia, had the vaccine.

“God, here I am, the mother of them, and I won’t even get it? I thought I better have a go.”

Te Korowai Hauora o Hauraki-Thames chief executive Riana Manuel has been working locally in health for the past 30 years. People sometimes needed a trigger to change their minds, she said.

Shontae McLean was in the same boat.

The young mother said she didn’t see the need to get the jab before the Case A visitor came to town.

“I wasn’t a big fan of getting it before.

“I just did not see the need, we don’t really go anywhere out of this town, and I didn’t think Covid-19 would ever come here.

“It’s just safer for me to get it,” said McLean, who did not want to pass the virus on to her baby.

Residents are shaken following the Delta outbreak which touched the small Coromandel town.

Reuben Heke said he was unsure about the Pfizer jab, but since the health clinic was offering, he decided to take the opportunity.

Te Korowai Hauora o Hauraki-Thames chief executive Riana Manuel has 30 years’ experience working in health, and said “apathy” was a big driver against the vaccine.

“Sometimes we need a catalyst, sometimes we need a trigger to help us make those decisions.

The concern of having Delta in the small town was “massive”.

Manuel said her health provider had been holding a series of hui around marae in the region, taking mobile vaccination clinics with them.

Vaccination rates in the Coromandel were doing well, with 38.7 per cent of the population enrolled at GP practices receiving at least their first dose of the vaccine, the latest Waikato DHB figures, provided on Wednesday, showed. This is the highest percentage across the Waikato region, the DHB said.

In the Hauraki district, 6331vaccine doses had been delivered as of Wednesday. Of the population enrolled at GP practices in the area, 29.5 per cent had received at least their first dose. The numbers for both areas would have increased since with the arrival of the pop-up clinics.

But stories still spread on the street, through friends of friends, Manuel said.

“When I go around, people will always say to me, ‘I’m a bit reluctant because I heard someone died of a Covid-19 vaccination,’ but when I press them and ask them, ‘What was the name of that person?’ Well, they don’t know the name of that person.

“I say to them: If you cannot name the person, or the autopsy or the coroner, then actually it hasn’t happened. I say: What I can tell you, is the names of people who’ve died of Covid, right here in New Zealand.”

Following news of the 58-year-old positive case visiting bars, restaurants and tourist attractions in the town, more than 600 people had already undergone a Covid-19 test.

That’s almost half the people in the area, which has a population of about 1860 people.

“It’s a small town we’ve been everywhere, we’ve all walked the streets and gone to the cafes in between knowing it might be here,” Manuel said.

Coromandel GP Dr Bryan MacLeod, from the Coromandel Family Health Centre, said their small team were swabbing all day Wednesday and immunised 180 people on Thursday.

“We are encouraging everyone over 40 and their whānau over 16 to be immunised to protect themselves, their family and the community,” MacLeod said.

“We will be running a drive-in immunisation clinic at our clinic and happy to immunise casual patients. Preferably if people have access to the internet then they use ‘book my vaccine’ but we are happy for people to turn up. Kia kaha.”