Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - December 24, 2020, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A2 A 2 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020 ? WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM CHRISTMAS ? FROM A1 VACCINE ? FROM A1 VOL 150 NO 46 Winnipeg Free Press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 2020 Winnipeg Free Press, a division of FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership. Published seven days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2X 3B6, PH: 204-697-7000 Publisher / BOB COX Editor / PAUL SAMYN Associate Editor Enterprise / SCOTT GIBBONS Associate Editor News / STACEY THIDRICKSON Associate Editor Digital News / WENDY SAWATZKY Director Photo and Multimedia / MIKE APORIUS NEWSMEDIA COUNCIL The Winnipeg Free Press is a member of the National Newsmedia Council, which is an in- dependent organization established to determine acceptable journalistic practices and ethical behaviour. If you have concerns about editorial content, please send them to: editorialconcerns@freepress.mb.ca. 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GENERAL INQUIRIES 204-697-7000 The Free Press receives support from the Local Journalism Initiative funded by the Government of Canada "We are encouraged to see more front-line MGEU workers added to the next group of those to get the COVID 19 vaccine. We understand that sup- ply is short and demand is high, and we're looking forward to even more of our members working on the front lines being added to the list in future," president Michelle Gawronsky said. Plans are underway to set up three large immunization "super sites" in Winnipeg, Brandon and Thompson, the latter of which is expected to serve people from all over northern Manitoba. Vaccines are expected to be rolled out in other areas once the province gets more information about how the vaccine can be transported. For the first time Wednesday, the province revealed the health experts and First Nations appointees who are working on its vaccine planning. Dr. Marcia Anderson, Dr. Barry Lavallee, Cindy Garson and Melanie MacKinnon were appointed by grand chiefs to a trilateral table, along with senior officials from Indigenous Services Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces. Provincial officials have been asked repeatedly in recent weeks how Indig- enous peoples would be represented in Manitoba's vaccine planning. There is currently no M�tis representation on the committee; a provincial spokes- person said the planning team will be reviewed, during subsequent phases of vaccine deployment. Vaccines are expected to be rolled out in First Nations communities at the same time they're distributed in personal care homes, officials said Wednesday. Federal approval of the Moderna vaccine, announced Wednesday, "is an exciting step," and Manitoba's vaccine rollout team is figuring out how many doses of that vaccine will be sent to this province and who should get first priority, said Dr. Joss Reimer, Manito- ba's medical health officer and one of the leaders of the provincial vaccine rollout. "We know the vaccine is still in rela- tively short supply here in Manitoba, and across the country, and truly across the world. Supplies are expect- ed, for the next few months, to remain limited," Reimer said Wednesday. "But it is important for the province and for Manitobans to know how we will be prioritizing who gets the vac- cine as it becomes available." The province hasn't promised that all personal care home residents will be able to get vaccinated by the end of January. Manitoba hasn't yet received a vaccine that can be shipped to personal care homes, since the Pfizer vaccine must be kept at an extremely cold temperature. Once more vaccines are shipped, personal care homes will receive vaccines based on how many residents live there and their level of risk. Residents who live in shared rooms in large care homes will be first in line, the province said. "Because the vaccine is not going to be coming in large chunks at one time, we do need to have a process where, as they come in week by week, we continue to expand to include more facilities," Reimer said. "So whether or not we're able to achieve the 15,000 all residents (vaccinated) within Janu- ary has not yet been made clear, but we do plan to look at that in the very near future." As of Wednesday, 1,687 Manito- bans had been vaccinated. Currently, only select health-care workers can receive the vaccine, but the eligibil- ity was expanded as of Wednesday to include people who work at COVID-19 testing sites. - with files from Dylan Robertson katie.may@freepress.mb.ca "She dragged me back," Chippas- tance said. She now works as a volun- teer co-ordinator and mentor to the junior staff, in addition to running the program for six- to 11-year-olds. She usually starts work around 10 a.m., and tries to go home around 6 p.m., but she frequently gets side- tracked by a challenge at the foosball table. "I'll always play, and there's no holding back," she said with a smile. "I play to win, even against the little guys." People would ask her, "How are your kids?" and she'd ask, "Which ones? The ones at Rossbrook or my own?" So when the pandemic struck, she had quite a few kids to think about. . . . I T'S people like Chippastance who keep Rossbrook going, said Phil Chiappetta, who started at the cen- tre in 1980. He remembers her from back then, a young kid with a big heart and strong ties to the community. In the four decades since then, Chiap- petta has seen the neighbourhood change: organizations such as the non- profit Immigrant and Refugee Com- munity Organization of Manitoba have been established nearby, buildings have been torn down, a Tim Hortons and a Subway have been put up. The physical neighbourhood has changed, but the systemic issues Rossbrook House was founded to fight against - poverty, hunger, gang violence, lack of access to employment and resources - persist. "Things are moving in the right di- rection, but there are tons of systemic issues that won't likely end any time soon," he said. During the pandemic, food insecuri- ty is on the rise, after-school programs and sports - huge outlets for youth - are on hold, and with employment even more tenuous than usual, the individu- al needs of low-income households are more pressing. Plus, the area has been affected dis- proportionately, from both a health and welfare perspective. So the work of organizations such as Rossbrook, and people like Chippas- tance, is as invaluable as ever. Chiappetta said the community stepped up to keep the centre going during these tough times: funding from organizations such as End Home- lessness Winnipeg, United Way and the Winnipeg Foundation, plus support from dozens of social justice groups and individuals, has allowed Rossbrook to keep doing its work. "We'll be OK because Winnipeggers are great at rallying behind a cause," she said. But the rallying only gets so far: someone has to keep six-year-olds en- gaged to make sure it's not wasted. . . . CHIPPASTANCE is a seasoned veteran at doing that. She walked around the room during the Christmas party, keeping her distance, checking in on all the children in the gymnasium to try to make sure they were having fun for at least a few hours a week. With the gift-unwrap- ping game, she knew she had at least 15 minutes accounted for. Siblings Travis, Jude and Gertrude ripped through their packaging: there were table hockey games and craft kits hidden deep beneath the wrap- ping. Travis and Jude held their boxes in the air with pride, and Gertrude's eyes widened when she saw the craft kit. Savannah tore through her packag- ing, too, finding a hair-glitter kit and wondering if she needed to be blonde to use it. "Glitter's for everyone," a junior staffer said. One by one, the kids unwrapped their presents, with one boy, Brandon, lagging behind. "Come on Brandon," Chippastance said. He was working up a sweat, and 10 minutes after he started, he too unwrapped a table hockey game. "I think I pulled my shoulder," he said, wincing. Next, there were more gifts - some- thing Chippastance said many families would have trouble getting their hands on this year, because of restrictions on in-store shopping and other barriers. These ones were generously donated, she said, including all the makings for a homemade slime project. Brandon looked confused by the bag of flour until he noticed the sheet of paper with a recipe for slime written on it. Sheila looked pleased. The kids were eating, they were laughing. And even six feet apart, they were playing: a wind-up car raced across the room, slamming into the wall, and Jude cried with laughter. Asked if this year felt any different than previous Christmases at Ross- brook, or at home, nine-year-old Savan- nah shook her head no. "We're still having fun," she said. ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca DANIEL CRUMP / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Sheila Chippastance instructs kids on how to make Christmas ornaments. Because of the pandemic, the program has come up with creative ways to celebrate Christmas this year. O TTAWA - Health Canada ap-proved a second COVID-19 vac-cine Wednesday, paving the way for the shots from U.S. biotech firm Moderna to start arriving in the coun- try. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wel- comed the move during a news confer- ence in which he also announced that Canada will receive more doses next month of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine than expected, after it was approved by Health Canada on Dec. 9. Between the early doses already in the country, and the shipments now scheduled, Canada should have at least 1.2 million doses from Pfizer and Mod- erna delivered by Jan. 31, Trudeau said. Eventually in 2021, enough doses will arrive from the two companies to vac- cinate 30 million people. But Trudeau warned of a long road still ahead. Speaking outside his Ottawa resi- dence, the prime minister issued a final plea before Christmas for Canadians to restrain themselves from attending or hosting large gatherings to prevent a post-holiday surge in COVID-19 cases. "Our country has been through dif- ficult Christmases before. There have been times when our grandparents or parents couldn't be with family or had to put traditions on hold," said Trudeau, who turns 49 on Dec. 25. "Well this Christmas, it's our turn. It's up to us to protect each other. It's up to us to pull together to hold on and to know however dark the winter may be, spring is coming and better days will be back." New cases of the virus were reported in nearly all provinces Wednesday as both Ontario and Quebec also prepared to re-enter lockdown in a bid to curb their record high levels of cases. The rollout of the Moderna vaccine is expected to begin within days, with Health Canada saying it expects up to 168,000 doses to be delivered by the end of December. "After assessing all the data, we con- cluded that there was strong evidence that showed the benefits of this vaccine outweigh the potential risks," Health Canada's chief medical officer Dr. Su- priya Sharma said in Ottawa. While the Pfizer vaccine is being dis- tributed in cities across Canada, officials said the Moderna version will be distrib- uted to remote communities. That's be- cause it does not need the extreme-cold storage as the Pfizer version. The first doses are prioritized for front-line health staff, residents and workers in long-term care, adults in remote Indigenous com- munities, and seniors over the age of 80 living in the community. Long-term care facilities in Ontario and Quebec continue to struggle with outbreaks of COVID-19, and on Wed- nesday, Trudeau committed another $70 million to help the Canadian Red Cross respond. The prime minister also announced Canada would extend a ban on flights from Britain for two weeks to Jan. 6 as the U.K. struggles with a new strain of COVID-19 that experts suggest is more contagious than other variants. Sharma expressed confidence the ap- proved vaccines will remain effective against the new COVID-19 strain iden- tified in the United Kingdom. "We still are waiting for confirmation of the testing of these vaccines against that specific variant," she said. "In gen- eral, we believe that they will be... ef- fective." Yukon's Health Minister Pauline Frost described the Moderna approval as the "exciting news Yukoners have been waiting for." Frost said delivery of 7,200 doses will be enough to allow 3,600 residents of the territory to receive the two doses needed for immunity. A similar number will be delivered to Northwest Territor- ies, Health Minister Julie Green said. Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the military officer charged with overseeing the logistical challenge of distributing vac- cine doses across Canada, said the first Moderna doses will be delivered to the three territories on Monday. He also said officials are preparing to ramp up next week from 14 vaccine delivery sites to 100 to handle the ex- panded influx of vaccine doses from Moderna and Pfizer. "We're building capacity and col- laborating with our federal provincial, territorial and Indigenous partners to ensure that as many Canadians as pos- sible can be safely immunized against COVID-19, and as quickly as possible," Fortin said. Deputy public health officer Dr. How- ard Njoo said the plan is to have all Can- adians vaccinated by September. Canada is to get 40 million doses of Moderna's vaccine in 2021, enough to vaccinate 20 million people, or about two-thirds of the adult population. The vaccine is not yet recommended for use on children as tests on adoles- cents only began in December and tests on children younger than 12 won't begin until next year. Two more vaccines are being re- viewed by Health Canada, one from As- traZeneca and the other from Johnson and Johnson, Sharma said, but more information is needed before they can be approved. - The Canadian Press Moderna vaccine gets Health Canada approval LEE BERTHIAUME MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Dr. Joss Reimer says Manitoba will adjust its vaccination rollout plan as more doses become available. A_02_Dec-24-20_FP_01.indd A2 2020-12-23 9:13 PM ;