COVID-19 vaccine brings hope to Winnipeg personal care homes suffering from the pandemic

The arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine is bringing a much needed dose of hope to vulnerable Manitobans.

Shoshana Forester Smith said the promise that Manitoba will receive its first shipment of the vaccine is brightening spirits at her personal care home, which has so far avoided the high case counts and death tolls of other facilities.

"The mood is different, like everyone seems lighter. People don't seem so down and depressed," she said of staff and residents at Riverview Health Centre .

"It's been a ray of light for all of us." 

Forester Smith, who lives with a chronic illness, said people at the PCH are wearing the stress of the pandemic. Nobody wants to bring the virus into the home, which has so far reported four cases among staff, according to provincial numbers.

"Not having to deal with that anxiety and the threat of having COVID hanging over your head all the time will also make everyone feel a whole heck of a lot better, too, because that's no way to live. It's scary right now," Forester Smith said.

The province signalled Wednesday that 900 health-care workers in critical care units will be the first to be immunized for the novel coronavirus in Manitoba, as soon as next week. Manitoba expects to inoculate more than 100,000 people by late March of 2021.

Other individuals high on the priority list include other health-care workers tending to those sick with COVID-19 and seniors living in congregate settings, such as personal care homes.

Health-care workers should be 'front-runners'

Angie Landry raves about the staff taking care of her mother at Holy Family Home in Winnipeg. Those workers are doing as much as they can, she said, and deserve to be among the first to be immunized.

"They should be the front-runners, and then after that I really believe that it should be the residents of the care homes," Landry said.

"This is the last leg of their life and they should not have to be put through this kind of … loneliness, of being isolated and not being able to see your family."

Landry is trying to help her mother, Nellie Rogocki, as best as she can from afar. She speaks with her by phone or video chat several times a day to keep her company.

"Whatever I have to do," she said. "If it's every 10 minutes, I'll talk to her."

The province is following the guidance of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, an independent committee in charge of who gets the coveted shot in the arm first.

As well as health-care workers and those in congregate living settings, people aged 80 or older and adults at risk in remote or isolated Indigenous communities are at the top of the list in Manitoba.

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Arlen Dumas said the province is right to want to vaccinate the vulnerable on Indigenous communities, but added there are at-risk First Nations people who shouldn't be excluded because they live off-reserve.

"It needs to be open to everybody," he said.

Health-care unions want to ensure every person dealing directly with COVID-19 patients gets the vaccine.

Bob Moroz with the Manitoba Association of Health-Care Professionals said he didn't want members who have suddenly been redeployed to the front lines of the pandemic response to be excluded from the vaccine doses.

Meanwhile, Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson said she wants more details from the province. She's unsure which of her members in critical care units will be eligible for the first batch of vaccinations, nor the criteria the province is using.