New Zealand's Minister of Health is expected to announce a Pacific member to the group overseeing Covid testing at the border this week.
Over 22,000 Pacific people have been tested in New Zealand, with the second outbreak having taken place in South Auckland.
Photo: RNZ Pacific / Sela Jane Hopgood
Associate Health Minister Jenny Salesa said Chris Hipkins would make the announcement soon, and said there were Pacific members already at the decision making table.
"At the decision making table we do already have a voice, I am one of those people that when the prime minister convenes the all-government group I actually sit in on that group and there are other cabinet ministers who are of Pacific descent as well."
Salesa said there was a technical Covid advisory group as well that the University of Auckland's Dr Colin Tukuitonga sits on.
Last week the chair of the Pasifika GP Network called on the government to ensure there was a Pacific voice on the border testing advisory group.
Dr Api Talemaitoga told RNZ's Morning Report, for the group to be effective, meaningful Pacific involvement was vital.
"It's just an opportunity that I hope we do not lose, with 70 percent of the cases in the current cluster being of Pasifika decent."
"I think all the talk about equity, which seems to be the latest fashion accessory, needs to be put into practice and we need a Pasifika voice."
Health Minister, Chris Hipkins Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
This week Health Minister, Chris Hipkins, said Māori and Pacific communities had been deeply involved in the planning of a testing blitz set for the coming days across Auckland.
The government planned to carry out 70,000 tests across the country.
Hipkins said six more mobile testing units would be added to the South Auckland area.
He said representatives from the Māori and Pacific population there had been involved in the response.
"We've been working Māori and Pacific health providers so they are very extensively involved in this.
"There has been a lot of consultation with Māori and Pacific communities, information is being made available in a variety of different languages for example, including Pacific languages, so we are working very closely with those communities."
The Director of Health, Ashley Bloomfield, said the testing teams were designed to help the local communities.
"Many of these testing teams that are going out to establish the pop up sites have explicitly got Māori and Pasifika staff so that they are able to speak the language of the people who might be coming in, the first language if necessary."