Successful First Nations Vaccination Plan Moves Forward

More than 90 percent of residents living in Indigenous communities on Vancouver Island have now received a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

First Nations Health Authority Vancouver Island Regional Director Brennan MacDonald, a member of Cowichan Tribes, says the current vaccination rate for Indigenous communities on the Island is 92 percent.

In an FNHA media briefing, Thursday MacDonald reported they have “administered 9994 first doses to first nations people on Vancouver Island,” and they expect to complete in-community vaccinations this week.

MacDonald says the focus is moving to reach Indigenous people in the broader community to ensure “the vaccine reaches the rest of our indigenous population on Vancouver Island, and building on that foundation of relationships that have been established long before the pandemic that’s enabled us to move so quickly.”

The First Nations Health Authority says that across British Columbia, roughly 60-percent of those in Indigenous communities have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

More than 55-hundred Indigenous people in BC tested positive for the virus, and 97 have died since the pandemic began.