Call for booster shots for First Nations, as Ahousaht outbreak continues – Times Colonist
October 5, 2021
The First Nations Health Authority is calling for COVID booster shots for First Nations, as an outbreak in Ahousaht First Nation on the west side of Vancouver Island continues.
“Let’s just say it’s in conversation,” Dr. Shannon McDonald, chief medical health officer for the health authority, said Monday.
There are 676 active COVID‑19 cases in First Nations on and off reserve across B.C., up from fewer than 20 active cases in mid-August, before “the Delta variant showed up,” said McDonald. Of those active cases, 58 are in hospital.
McDonald said she and her First Nations Health Authority counterparts in other provinces, including Manitoba, will present data Friday on breakthrough cases — vaccinated individuals infected with COVID — “recognizing that those breakthrough cases are almost universally not severe,” she said.
