Two-day vaccination clinic has resulted in Community Immunity says Snuneymuxw Chief Mike Wyse

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COVID-19 case at Hart House care home.

Island Health has declared another COVID-19 case at a care home. One staff member at Hart House in Victoria tested positive for the virus. Island Health says all 17 residents have been tested in the long-term care home, but there are no positive cases among them. Outbreaks have also been declared at Chartwell Malaspina long-term care home in Nanaimo and the Ts’i’ts’uwatul’ Lelum assisted living facility in Duncan.

71% of Snuneymuxw received vaccination

The chief of the Snuneymuxw First Nation says a two-day vaccination clinic has resulted in "community immunity" against COVID-19 among those who live on the reserve. Chief Mike Wyse says 71% of the reserve population received the Moderna vaccine last week. The acting Chief Medical Officer for the First Nations Health Authority says it the Snuneymuxw was not on the original list of indigenous communities to receive the first doses of the vaccine, but some vaccine was diverted to examine whether it could stop the spread of an outbreak involving 28 cases. However, Dr. Shannon McDonald says that does not mean that other nations with outbreaks, including the Cowichan Tribes, will also receive vaccines while the outbreak is occurring.

"This is the first time that we have gone away from our original plan and list of prioritized communities. This is an opportunity that we had because there was vaccine made available to respond to this cluster. Depending on, as time goes on how many vaccines we're alloted, we may not have the opportunity to do this."
—FNHA Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr. Shannon McDonald

McDonald says the first eight nations to receive the vaccines last week were chosen because of their remote locations and for having experienced COVID-19 outbreaks. In total, there have been 191 cases of the virus among indigenous people both on and off-reserve on Vancouver Island during the pandemic. The First Nations Health Authority will not confirm how many deaths have occurred.

VIU student selected for Canada’s Culinary Olympic Team

A burgeoning chef and student at Vancouver Island University have been named a member of Canada's Junior Culinary Olympic Team. 19-year-old Otis Crabbe is working on his Red Seal designation and will receive his Culinary Management diploma from VIU this spring. At the same time, he will start training with eight other Olympic culinary students from across the country at the Culinary Institute of Canada in Vancouver. Crabbe may have been born to it, having started working at his family's restaurant in Ucluelet by the time he was 13.

"I started off standing behind, just barely looking over the till to take orders and as soon as I could I was running the oven. At one point, you know, everybody wants to be a cowboy or an astronaut or a soldier, but I always just wanted to be a cook."—Otis Crabbe.

Crabbe and the team will represent Canada at the oldest culinary competition in the world, which takes place in Stuttgart Germany in 2024.