Leaders of culturally and linguistically diverse communities across the State are being called on to help spread accurate information on COVID-19 vaccination.
NSW’s Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said NSW Health and the NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service (MHCS) had worked closely with multicultural groups throughout the pandemic to provide COVID-19 information in 57 languages.
Dr Chant said community leaders had been invaluable in ensuring that information reached everyone, regardless of the language they spoke.
“Over the past year, I’m so grateful that they have helped us by sharing information on subjects like the symptoms of COVID‑19, how to get tested and how to keep COVID safe,” Dr Chant said.
“Now we are asking them to help us again to make sure everyone gets accurate information they can trust on vaccines and the vaccination process,” she said.
“Not all the information circulating out there is correct, so it’s important that people know where to go for the right advice.”
Dr Chant said she was very proud of the work NSW Health and MHCS had done to ensure COVID-19 information was accessible to everyone in the community.
“I also want to thank the continuous support of the multicultural health services across the local health districts and State-wide Agencies including Multicultural NSW and Service NSW in reaching our communities,” she said.
Controller of the State Health Emergency Operations Centre, Susan Pearce said vaccination would be free for everyone in Australia, including those without Medicare cards.
“We urge everyone who can to be vaccinated when it becomes available to them,” Ms Pearce said.
Information on the COVID vaccination is available in various languages on the NSW Health website at this PS News link.
