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| Above, Red Rock Navajo Casino near Gallup, New Mexico. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Last week, while driving to Gallup, I saw police and security vehicles with their light bars on and many people in the parking lot of Fire Rock Casino.
Fire Rock Casino has been closed since the pandemic started last year.
As I drove closer, there were tables and tents set up with people on foot and in vehicles lined up.
This was a mass inoculation of members of the Navajo Nation of the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the article below from the Arizona Public Media, mass vaccinations in different locations in and around the Navajo Nation are paying off. During the height of the pandemic, the virus hit the Navajo Nation hard and many Navajos came down with the virus that caused many deaths, most of which hit the tribal elders hard.
Arizona Public Media reported:
The Navajo Nation exceeded its goal to administer 100,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of February. Now it's aiming for 120,000 by the end of the month.
Tribal officials reported Thursday that 104,974 doses had been administered. Since then, they have continued to advertise vaccination events across the reservation that is the size of West Virginia.
Dr. Chris Percy, the Community Health Director of the Northern Navajo Medical Center, was helping with the vaccine rollout at Shiprock High School Saturday in Shiprock, New Mexico. He said 84% of elders over the age of 65 have been vaccinated, along with 37% of people over the age of 16. The Navajo Department of Health reports it's vaccinating people in Phase 1B now.
"We're really excited so many people have come out and got it. Many, many of our families have been affected by COVID," Percy said. "We've lost so many people, and so many people have suffered all year, and now we can finally do something about it."
This is good news for the Navajo Nation as well as the counties surrounding it in the Four Corners region, including New Mexico's McKinley County, where I reside.
To read more, go here.
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