WINNIPEG -- Manitoba reached a vaccination milestone on Saturday, with 100,000 doses administered, according to Health and Seniors Care Minister Heather Stefanson.

The milestone comes one year this month after the first Manitoban died from the virus and three months removed from the start of the vaccination campaign that began on December 16 of last year.

The first vaccination clinic was for healthcare workers and took place at the University of Manitoba's Bannatyne campus. Health Science Centre physician Brian Penner got the first shot.

"I'm very fortunate and it's a luck of the draw as to how I got here and it was not expected," said Penner at the time.

That round of vaccinations was for an expected 900 healthcare workers and came one day after the province received its first vaccine delivery. Those vaccines were from Pfizer. Now four vaccines have been approved by the federal government, with deliveries for the one dose Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccine still is in the works.

"This milestone means thousands of people have been protected against COVID-19 with first and second doses, as we work together to protect one another from this deadly virus," Stefanson said in a release. "It's also important to acknowledge hard work, commitment and dedication from those on the front lines and on our Vaccination Implementation Task Force who have made this possible."

Vaccination eligibility increased to include the general public on March 1, with 93-year-old Nina Luhowy getting her first dose at the Winnipeg RBC Convention Centre. When asked if she was looking forward to receiving both vaccine doses, she said yes.

"Yeah. I guess everybody is feeling that way, waiting," Luhowy said at the time. "Will it help? Who knows. It takes a long time for everybody to get through with this too, the two needles."

Now four supersites have opened across the province in Winnipeg, Brandon, Selkirk and Thompson, with a fifth site in Morden scheduled to open on March 22.

According to the province, all eligible residents of personal care homes who wanted to be vaccinated have now had both doses, and Focused Immunization Teams (FITs) have visited nearly 200 congregate living sites administering over 5600 doses.

When the rollout began, around 300 people a day were getting a shot, a far cry from the provincial goal.

"We continue to build the infrastructure needed to bring vaccine to people throughout our province," said Johanu Botha, operations lead of the Vaccination Implementation Task Force. "The pandemic continues to test the mettle of all of us, but we are on track with our response and our plan to administer 20,000 doses a day."

Now the campaign is expanding to include doctor offices and pharmacies, as well as vaccination clinics on remote First Nations. Dr. Joss Reimer, the medical lead for the Vaccination Implementation Task Force, said as the vaccine supplies increase, there will be a vaccine for every Manitoban who is eligible.

"It has been difficult to be patient, particularly when vaccines were so scarce. We are seeing a ray of hope as we meet this milestone of 100,000 doses and as we deliver hundreds of thousands more doses, please keep following the fundamentals to keep yourself and your loved ones healthy," said Reimer.