Planning, trust led to COVID-19 vaccination success in Northern Ontario First Nations – TimminsToday.com
Minister of Indigenous Services says infection rates in First Nations are dropping due to vaccines
In a game called Last Man Standing, about 31 adults stood around a plastic folding table outside the community centre. Each person had one hand on the table, where they had to keep it or be eliminated. The last one remaining, a man who stood for 16.5 hours without lifting his hand, walked away with keys to a new all-terrain vehicle.
It was one of many activities at Neskantaga’s spring carnival, an annual week-long celebration the remote community in Northern Ontario could hold because it created a bubble with stringent pandemic protocols, and at least 89 per cent of the eligible population have received both doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
Neskantaga is among 31 communities that participated in Operation Remote Immunity, a vaccination program led by Ontario’s Ornge air ambulance service in collaboration with Nishnawbe Aski Nation, a political territorial organization representing 49 mostly remote First Nations in Northern Ontario.
