Micah Garen
/ Getty Images
Health officials are administering the first doses of a coronavirus vaccine in Indigenous communities across the U.S., one of the populations most vulnerable in the pandemic.
About 68,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses will initially be distributed among the population, the Indian Health Service said last week. Doses began to arrive this week and will first be given to the elderly and health care workers.
"We are so happy I can't even describe it," said Dr. Dakotah Lane, medical director of the Public Health Department and a Lummi Nation member, according to the Associated Press.
The coronavirus ravaged American Indian communities even after tribal governments implemented numerous control measures. Tribes ordered closures, roadblocks, universal testing and curfews but cases continued to rise.