NWHU begins vaccine release

Natali Trivuncic
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Residents of long-term care homes and elder care facilities in First Nation communities are set to be receiving the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the beginning of February.

Residents at Rainycrest Long-Term Care Home who have completed consent forms will begin to receive vaccines on Jan. 27, and residents at Emo Health Centre and Rainy River Health Centre will be receiving vaccines on Jan. 28.

Dr. Kit Young Hoon, medical officer of health at the Northwestern Health Unit (NWHU), said due to the shortage of vaccines at the provincial and national level, they have been directed by the province to focus on vulnerable populations first.

Young Hoon said the NWHU is working on the rollout this week and next week to ensure those vaccinations occur by Feb. 5. The vaccine rollout is done in partnership with Riverside Health Care, the long-term care home facilities and other agencies as it relates to elder care homes and First Nation populations.

“We’ve received 300 doses [of the vaccine] to date but there will be more doses coming in order to complete vaccinations of the residents,” Young Hoon said.

This will be the first dose of the vaccine with the second dose coming in about a month. Young Hoon said that not all residents will be able to receive the vaccine for this rollout.

The NWHU reported no new cases today however, based on updates received from the lab testing, Young Hoon said two cases previously listen as positive in the Rainy River District have been removed.

One case was reported over the weekend as a retest of a positive case and has now been identified as redundant due to multiple lab test admissions. The second case was reported over the weekend has been changed to a person under investigation category upon further analysis of the test results.

In the last seven days from Jan. 18 to Jan. 24, the catchment area had 14 new confirmed cases as well as three probable cases for a total of 17. There were six in Dryden, five in Kenora, two in Fort Frances, two in Emo, one in Rainy River and one in Red Lake.

No new hospitalizations have occurred. There are two people currently in hospital.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been a total of 255 local cases confirmed and probable of which 238 are resolved and there has been one death in the region so far.

Young Hoon said of the 17 new cases in the region last week, eight were close contacts of known cases, one was related to an outbreak, and one was linked to travel. The source of exposure remains unknown for seven of these new cases.