La Ronge Mayor Colin Ratushniak received the vaccine last Friday. (Colin Ratushniak/Facebook)

By Derek Cornet

COVID-19

Inoculations deemed a success as active tri-community cases reaches 100

Jan 14, 2021 | 4:40 PM

More than 300 tri-communities residents received the Moderna coronavirus vaccine after inoculations began Jan. 8.

That’s according to data released Wednesday in the latest virus update for Air Ronge, La Ronge and Lac La Ronge Indian Band communities. In Air Ronge and La Ronge there were 322 inoculations, in La Ronge (on-reserve), Grandmother’s Bay, Hall Lake and Sucker there were 270 and there were 120 in Stanley Mission. That’s a total of 712 inoculations.

“The Far North East is doing an incredible job of administering those doses as quickly and safely as possible,” said La Ronge Mayor Colin Ratushniak. “I have to commend our frontline workers for the incredible job they have done. They are tirelessly working overtime trying to keep everything at bay.”

The data released Wednesday also shows the tri-communities have hit 100 active cases of COVID-19 as of Jan. 13. There were 61 active cases on-reserve, 36 in La Ronge and three in Air Ronge. One resident of La Ronge is in hospital, there has been 188 recovered cases and one death. As of Jan. 14, there are 421 active cases in the Far North East.

Wednesday’s update was the first since last week and Ratushniak wanted to remind residents an update will now only be issued once per week rather than daily. He said the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is working over capacity and employees don’t have time for daily updates anymore.

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“Those numbers are great for residents for comfort, but also for information,” Ratushniak said. “At the same time, whether those numbers are zero or in our case we’ve tipped over 100 now, there should be no difference in the way people conduct their daily lives and follow the public health orders.”

As a medical transportation pilot, Ratushniak received an inoculation Jan. 8 and he encourages all residents to get one when their time comes. He explained an information request has been submitted to the SHA for clarification as to how residents will be informed when that time arrives.

“For the vaccine, I need everyone to be an advocate for it,” he said. “I have zero tolerance for conspiracy theories. I don’t know how long people want to wait and live in this sort of situation. As soon as people are eligible, I hope people rush and go get that vaccine.”

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno