How Manitoba is targeting specific communities in its COVID-19 vaccine campaign

A person receives a COVID-19 vaccine at a drive-thru clinic at Richardson Stadium in Kingston, Ont., on Friday, May 28, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg

WINNIPEG -

The Manitoba government has created a number of types of clinics to ensure certain communities get their COVID-19 vaccines; however, the province is urging people not to attend these clinics if they aren’t part of the intended population.

One example of these clinics is community-led clinics, in which community organizations and businesses organize and host immunization clinics.

“As the name suggests, they’re community led, so these are non-profit organizations, businesses, churches, post-secondary institutions who have the ability to organize and host an immunization clinic,” said Johanu Botha, operations, logistics and planning lead for Manitoba’s Vaccine Implementation Task Force.

Though these may be smaller clinics that only operate for a short period of time, Botha said they are useful in reaching people who might not be able to attend other vaccination locations.

Botha noted that these clinics are meant for specific workplaces, communities and ethnocultural groups.

“They are not meant for groups they were not developed for,” he said.

Some of the places that have already been involved in the community-led clinics include New Directions, Red River College and the Nigerian Association of Manitoba.

Botha added that there will be more announcements on these clinics going forward.

MOBILE CLINICS

Another way the province is reaching specific groups is through mobile clinics, aimed at getting vulnerable people and hard-to-reach-populations their COVID-19 vaccines.

“Street Links and Main Street Project are helping to immunize their clients, which is successful because they’re known and they’re trusted by the communities they serve,” Botha said,

He noted that to help support this work the province launched a mobile unit on Thursday.

“It will be focusing on specific locations and communities that might face barriers in being immunized otherwise,” Botha said,

“So we really do want to ensure that the service is being used by the right the community.”