Minister of Health Paul Merriman announced during a press conference Wednesday the Moderna vaccine is headed to La Ronge and other areas in the Far North East.
“As identified today, the Far North East is going to get their Moderna allocation,” he said. “It’s left Regina. It is on its way up there.”
He made the comment following a question about concerns from tri-community leadership about why the region wasn’t included in the first allotment of the Moderna vaccine across northern Saskatchewan earlier this week. The letter was signed by Air Ronge Mayor Julie Baschuk, La Ronge Mayor Colin Ratushniak and Lac La Ronge Indian Band Chief Tammy Cook-Searson.
La Ronge’s Kikinahk Friendship Centre has two new disinfection devices designed to eliminate the coronavirus.
That’s according to Executive Director Ron Woytowich, who purchased the ozone-generating machines through funding by the federal government. The larger of the two devices, which costs approximately $60,000, can completely sanitize a building the size of Kikinahk while the smaller unit, at $25,000, is meant for ambulances, buses and other small spaces.
“We definitely want to believe it is going to make a difference,” Woytowich said. “Quite frankly, everyone is scared of coronavirus, everyone is scared of getting it, but the benefits of this machine is not only can we use it for this virus, but it kills mold and everything else that is common.”