Canada is receiving some vaccination help from an American tribe. In Canada, approximately 34% of the citizens have received their first injection, and about 3% have received the second one. Officials note that they are considering extending the time between doses because of a shortage.
Currently, manufacturers recommend a person wait three weeks before they get their second shot. Canadians may have to wait four months. The reasoning behind the extension is it will allow more people to get the first dose, and that will create some form of partial coverage, which is better than none at all.
Canadian health authorities believe that they will receive 10 million more shots in the coming months, and there will be a steady flow after that. The country does not have a facility to manufacture the drug, so they are relying on European and other foreign pharmaceutical companies.
Some may be questioning why the United States is not sharing their doses with their closest neighbor. The word out of the District of Columbia is that they want to get Americans set up first. Now that the Americans are getting a steady flow of the inoculation, they might start to export some doses to Canada.
Canadians who are lucky enough to live by the Montana border have received a welcome boost. A Native American tribe had extra doses, and they offered them up to their counterparts in Canada, First Nations.
The Blackfoot tribe is located in far northern Montana, and they had almost 1,000 extra doses that needed to be used before they expired. This tribe received the medicine early on because they are part of the vulnerable population. The tribal authorities in America contacted their counterparts in Canada to let them know of their extra stock.
The message got out quickly through news outlets and social media. People drove down from Edmonton and other provinces to wait in line for inoculation. Once they arrived at the site, they had to stay in a long line of cars for their turn. Some people waited for over a day.
Canadians who crossed the border for the vaccine were allowed to enter back into their country without quarantining. Once inside the United States, they had to get their shot and quickly returned home. Health authorities gave them documentation to show while they crossed the border, and it released them from the mandatory quarantine. In Canada, visitors who enter the country must quarantine for two weeks.
