Soldiers assisting vaccination campaign

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This article was published 14/04/2021 (1977 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Approximately 100 soldiers from Canadian Forces Base Shilo have been deployed to northern Manitoba communities to assist with the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

The soldiers were deployed as part of Operation Vector, which aims to vaccinate people living in northern Manitoba First Nations, which have been particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The soldiers are largely providing logistical support to the vaccination teams, said Lt.-Col. David Brassard, unit commander of the 1st Regiment Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, and helping out where needed.

Some of the duties include providing transportation to medical personnel and co-ordinating equipment.

“The Shilo soldiers provide the leadership as well as the logistical support to medical teams … who actually carry out the nitty-gritty, which is the vaccination,” Brassard said.

“We’re very happy to come and actually help carry out the vaccination campaign. It’s great for the soldiers’ morale and it shows the public and Canadian taxpayers what we actually bring to the fight,” he said.

Soldiers have been in northern Manitoba since November as part of Operation Laser, when the military was deployed to help First Nations communities dealing with outbreaks of the virus.

The long deployment has given the military more opportunities to co-ordinate the vaccination rollout with local communities, Brassard said, and people are now used to the soldiers’ presence.

“A lot of these northern communities have dealt with the military, so when we arrive it’s not a surprise. They’re used to seeing the uniform in a positive light,” he said.

The deployment has also been a big morale boost for the soldiers themselves, he said, as they are directly making a difference in the fight against the virus. Brassard said morale is “through the roof.”

“For my soldiers, it’s one way to get back at COVID-19 … they’re super pumped because it’s much better to go up north, help our fellow Canadians, do the business, riding around in helicopters and make a change in people’s lives than staying in your basement sitting on your couch,” he said.

The military is taking precautions not to spread COVID-19 in the communities soldiers assist in, or between them, Brassard said. Vaccinations for soldiers have just started, so measures are being taken to make sure they themselves don’t spread the virus.

Military members are tested for COVID-19 before arriving in any new community to ensure they don’t import new cases, he said. Soldiers were also tested within 48 hours of first arriving in Thompson, which is where the military has set up a hub from which to deliver vaccines.

Soldiers sleep in common areas in community gymnasiums, if they have them, or in nursing stations.

“Usually what we try to do is to go into communities and adopt a light posture. We don’t want to be dependent on the community and take away from their supplies. We’re self-sufficient. We bring our own rations, we bring our own medical equipment, we bring our own medical gowns — you name it,” he said.

The military will have a presence in northern Manitoba for the “foreseeable future,” Brassard said, so it is too early to work out plans for how soldiers will self-isolate when they return south.

“The bottom line is, nobody will come back to Shilo with COVID-19,” Brassard said.

Operation Vector is scheduled to run until June.

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