Military to support vaccination efforts in northern Ontario Indigenous communities

A staff member escorts members of the Canadian Armed Forces in to a long term care home, in Pickering, Ont. on Saturday, April 25, 2020. The Canadian Armed Forces says minor problems remain in some Ontario long-term care homes they were deployed to earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO — The Canadian military is set to help with COVID-19 vaccine distribution in Indigenous communities in northern Ontario.

Federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair says on Twitter the Canadian Armed Forces will support vaccine efforts in 32 communities of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation.

The move comes after a request from the province for assistance in getting vaccines to First Nation communities.

The Canadian military has already helped with vaccines in the community of Nain in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Ontario is reporting 2,417 new cases of COVID-19 today and 50 more deaths related to the virus.

Health Minister Christine Elliott says there are 785 new cases in Toronto, 404 in Peel Region, 215 in York Region and 121 in Niagara.

Over 48,900 tests have been completed in Ontario over the past 24 hours.

The province is reporting that 4,427 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine were administered since the province's last report, and 1,436 are hospitalized with the virus.

A total of 280,573 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ontario so far.

Since the pandemic began, there have been 255,002 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ontario. Of those, 225,046 have recovered and 5,803 people have died.

The numbers are slightly up from Saturday's 2,359 cases, though deaths declined by two from previous figures.

Officials say a male teen who worked in a long-term care home is among the three deaths reported on the Middlesex-London region's COVID-19 case site in southwestern Ontario on Saturday.

A spokesman for the Middlesex-London Health Unit says they can't provide the exact age or any other details about him, but added he is the youngest person with COVID-19 in the county to have died from the virus.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 24, 2021.