Thompson's airport-based vaccination supersite hits turbulence, downtown site added

The proposed COVID-19 vaccination supersite in Thompson has encountered a bit of turbulence and a slight change inplans.

Mayor Colleen Smook said thesupersite dubbed Vaxport byPremier Brian Pallister, because it's locatedin ahangar nearthe northern Manitoba city's airportis somewhat troubling, and she notedthe municipality wasn't initially consulted.

"My first concern was the site wasn't going to be adequate, or big enough. So I expressed my concerns to the government and our [health authority] and anybody that would listen," she said.

Although the city has a population of 13,000, it alsoserves as a centre for surrounding northern communities, a population closer to 50,000, Smook said.

The Manitobagovernment announced last month it would open three so-called supersitesin the province located in Winnipeg, Brandon and Thompson. Winnipeg's opened Jan. 6 at the convention centre,Brandon's is set to open on Monday and Thompson'sin early February.

The other drawback to Vaxport is that the airport is about 10 kilometres from the city not exactly convenient for many people, especially with nobuses running out there along the gravel road, Smook said.

"It wasn't [suitable]for local people, or even our outlying communities and partners that would want to travel into Thompson, and then you're still another five miles out to the airport," Smook said, adding there are a lot of people on social assistance who simply have no way to get out there.

Some senior government officials were in the city on Thursday and toured Vaxport with Smook, who announced Friday that a second site is being set up at the more centralThompson Regional Community Centre, where flu vaccines were administered in the fall.

The COVID-19vaccine will be flown into the city and stored at Vaxport, with whatever doses deemed necessary transported to the downtown site, Smook said.

"We still will have a large population that is flying in [to the city] and definitely the airport site is very convenient that way," she said.

It is also ideal for people coming from communities that are in lockdown and keeping to themselves, Smook said.

"They don't have to come in [to the city centre] and mingle. They can keep to their community lockdown standards," she said.

"We have to think of all of our neighbours and what's best for the north."