Navajo Nation: COVID-19, coronavirus

[Mary Wilson]

Navajo leads the country in vaccine rollout: Here’s what went right

Feb 11, 2021
By Cindy Yurth

WINDOW ROCK

For once, something is going right on the Navajo Nation. Like, very, very right.

Some 44.5% of Navajos living on the reservation have been vaccinated for COVID-19 at least once. That’s more than any state in the union (the closest competitor is Alaska at 15.2%). Way more than the country as a whole (12.8%). And more than any country in the world except the tiny, oil-rich United Arab Emirates (44.8%).

While most states are still trying to get their over-65 population protected, at least one Navajo hospital (Tse Hootsooi) has lowered the age to anyone over 18 (which is basically everyone who can be vaccinated with the Pfizer formula; the vaccine has not yet been approved for use on children).

About 98% of the tribe’s vaccine supply has been used, and another 28,000 doses are expected this weekend.

https://navajotimes.com/reznews/navajo-leads-the-country-in-vaccine-rollout-heres-what-went-right/

 

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRan...nder-control-but-still-leery-of-delta-variant

Navajo have COVID-19 under control, but still leery of Delta variant
Posted By Alyssa Marksz/Cronkite News on Fri, Jun 25, 2021 at 3:30 PM

WASHINGTON – The Navajo Nation has yet to record a single case of the Delta variant of COVID-19, but now is not the time for tribe members to let down their guard, Navajo President Jonathan Nez said Wednesday.

Nez spent much of the time during a Washington Post program on public health talking about the Navajos’ success in fighting the pandemic, falling from a national COVID-19 hotspot at one point last year to negligible case numbers today.

But while the tribe has “been very cautious … I think we need to continue to be cautious,” Nez said, in part because of the arrival of the highly contagious Delta variant.

“We have heard updates that the city of Tucson has identified a Delta variant … so we are concerned,” Nez said.

An Arizona Department of Health official said Wednesday that the Delta variant has been found in northern, central and southern Arizona.

“The Alpha variant currently is the predominant strain in Arizona, but we anticipate that there will be an increase in the Delta variant since it appears to be more transmissible than the Alpha variant,” said Steve Elliott, a health department spokesperson.

Arizona Public Health Association Executive Director Will Humble said experts “expect that the Delta variant will be dominant by mid-to-late summer in Arizona.” ...