Editorial
More than half of eligible Manitobans are now double-dosed. While the COVID-19 vaccination rates are cause for celebration, the way we got here is not.
More than half of eligible Manitobans are now double-dosed. While the COVID-19 vaccination rates are cause for celebration, the way we got here is not.
Manitoba’s vaccine task force appears to have failed to account for race-based risk factors when determining vaccination eligibility, likely leading to higher hospitalizations and worse outcomes for residents who are Black, Indigenous or people of colour, according to data released last week.
During the third wave of the pandemic, intensive-care admission rates were more than four times higher for BIPOC communities than for white residents. Racialized patients were also 10 years younger, on average, than their white counterparts and many were not yet eligible for a vaccine an indication of the shortcomings of a rollout based on age alone.
Brandon Sun By: Kimberley Kielley Save to Read Later
All First Nations, Métis or Inuit 18 years and older are now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine the province announced during Monday’s press conference.
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All First Nations, Métis or Inuit 18 years and older are now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine the province announced during Monday’s press conference. People who self-identify as First Nations, Métis or Inuit will be able to access the vaccine, without needing to provide any type of proof, said Dr. Marcia Anderson, public health lead for the First Nations Pandemic Response Co-ordination Team.
At this time, including Métis and Inuit people in this eligibility acknowledges the response to the impacts of colonization on all Indigenous people in Canada, Anderson said. The urban Indigenous clinics, which are used to operating in status-blind ways, will be able to provide high-quality culture-based equitable services to First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.
Anyone who self-identifies as First Nations, Métis or Inuit will be able to get a vaccine without being asked to provide further proof, Anderson said. In February, when the province began its rollout of the vaccine to the general population, Anderson had said they may at some point ask for some form of proof to prevent people falsely claiming to be Indigenous in order to get the vaccine.
On Saturday, 710 cases of the more contagious coronavirus variants were reported in Manitoba on the province s variant dashboard, up from 704 on Friday. Of those, 287 are considered active.
Most of those cases are the B117 variant first detected in the U.K., though the province has also reported a total of 20 cases of the B1351 strain first seen in South Africa and one case of the P1 variant, which has become associated with Brazil.
There has been one other on-reserve case of a variant of concern in Manitoba, which was reported on March 19 by Dr. Marcia Anderson of the First Nations Pandemic Response Co-ordination Team.
OTTAWA The Manitoba government says it’s up to First Nations leaders to decide when Moderna doses are loaded onto planes, as chiefs question a 10-day lag in getting COVID-19 vaccines out of Winnipeg freezers.
OTTAWA The Manitoba government says it’s up to First Nations leaders to decide when Moderna doses are loaded onto planes, as chiefs question a 10-day lag in getting COVID-19 vaccines out of Winnipeg freezers. We have no confirmed date for the second dose, said Sagkeeng Chief Derrick Henderson. There’s been no explanation at all.
SAGKEENG HEALTH CENTRE / FACEBOOK
The Manitoba government says it’s up to First Nations leaders to decide when Moderna doses are loaded onto planes, as chiefs question a 10-day lag in getting COVID-19 vaccines out of Winnipeg freezers.