Vaccination blitz against COVID-19 on Peguis First Nation starts Monday

Every day, more calls come in to book appointments for COVID-19 vaccines on Peguis First Nation in Manitoba.

With a mass vaccination effort coming Monday, Chief Glenn Hudson said leadership expects the community will be able to immunize almost half its on-reserve population by Thursday.

The 1,930 Moderna first doses set to roll out in the community next week are in addition to the ones already used to vaccinate 279 elders, Hudson said.

The First Nation has more than 11,000 members, but only about 4,800 live in the community, he said. The latest doses received will bring the total number of people partially and fully vaccinated to about 2,209 or about 46 per cent of the on-reserve population.

Those doses will be administered at the Peguis Multiplex to people 18 and over starting Monday and running until Wednesday, with the clinics open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

More information about who's eligible and how to book an appointment is available on the community's website.

Hudson said he believes Peguis is one of the first First Nations in the province to roll out a mass vaccination clinic.

"It's certainly a good thing for our community. I know just receiving the vaccination myself a little while back it was a great feeling to be able to be vaccinated and to be protected against COVID-19," he said.

"And I think our community is stepping up in terms of registering. There's more people calling in over this last week since the announcement came."

1 active case

Hudson said the community is doing traditional ceremonies to bless each dose of vaccine.

"And obviously with that blessing [are] the prayers that are said to keep people healthy, to keep people safe and also to ensure the vaccinations work as they're intended to," he said.

"We have our children that are in school right now and we want to protect them. But we also want to continue to protect our elders that all have been vaccinated to date."

The community has also been keeping a ceremonial fire for a year that people stop by daily to provide offerings and say prayers, he said.

Peguis First Nation recently went 33 straight days without reporting a new COVID-19 case in the community and went weeks without a new case around Christmas, Hudson said.

Right now, the community only has one active case of the illness.

"We feel very good about our situation and especially with moving forward, with everybody being vaccinated," he said.

As of Thursday, 9,180 vaccines had been shipped to seven First Nations in Manitoba, said Melanie MacKinnon, one of the leaders of the Manitoba First Nations Pandemic Response Coordination Team at a news conference on Friday.

Another 4,320 vaccines are set to go out to four more communities next week, MacKinnon said.

Most of those First Nations will likely start vaccine clinics then, she said.