COVID-19 vaccines have arrived in Flin Flon and residents at area seniors' facilities have started receiving their first round of shots.
Provincial vaccination teams arrived at the Flin Flon Personal Care Home and Northern Lights Manor earlier this week, allowing for all consenting residents at the facilities to be the first people in Flin Flon to receive their shots. In total, 39 residents at the Northern Lights Manor and 31 residents at the Flin Flon Personal Care home were eligible to receive the vaccine. Residents at the Personal Care Home received their shots Jan. 21, while Northern Lights Manor residents are receiving their shots Jan. 22.
"Eligible residents at the NLM and the FF PCH received their vaccines this week.The residents will be eligible for their second doses of the vaccines the week of Feb. 18," an NHR spokesperson confirmed to The Reminder.
"The vaccine was available to all consenting residents at the personal care homes."
Over the past week, about 4,700 residents in Manitoba seniors' facilities were eligible to receive vaccine doses, including 136 residents within the Northern Health Region at three separate facilities - in addition to the Flin Flon-area residences, 66 people at the St. Paul's Residence in The Pas were able to receive their doses.
COVID-19 outbreaks had been announced at all three facilities earlier in the pandemic, with six cases in total - one in a staff member during an exposure last summer and five other people who tested positive after a second exposure months later - reported at the Northern Lights Manor. The manor was declared free of any outbreaks as of Jan. 6. Another outbreak at the Flin Flon Personal Care Home, reported after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19, was declared over Dec. 16 after no other people, including staff members and residents, reported any positive cases.
Vaccinations had been previously made available for people over age 75 living in some northern Saskatchewan communities, including Creighton, Denare Beach and Pelican Narrows - those doses were supplied by the Saskatchewan government and administered by provincial public health workers.
