Canada’s aboriginal communities to receive vaccine

Dany Fortin, a retired general, has been given the task of providing the vaccine across the country BLAIR GABLE/REUTERS

Canada is to deploy helicopters, boats, snowmobiles and dog sleds in its drive to immunise indigenous communities. Many remote tribes are accessible via logging roads or by aircraft, but those in the high Arctic are harder to reach. Both the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines, approved by Canada, require two doses days apart, and the communities do not have adequate storage facilities. Multiple trips across challenging terrain are therefore needed. Dany Fortin said that the army and the Red Cross would help. Canada’s aboriginal communities have a high risk of complications from Covid-19. Many lack access to clean water and nutritious food, while housing shortages make social distancing all but impossible.