Thank you very much for the question.
All of us in the department, even before the pandemic, have been very concerned about the most vulnerable population within each community, whether it's first nations, Inuit or Métis, especially individuals who are elders or who have diabetes or cardiovascular diseases. All of the individuals are at much higher risk of complications from COVID.
Because of that, one of the top priorities of the department was to convince the provinces and territories of the importance of prioritizing indigenous peoples for vaccination and to get public support for all other public health measures. Also, every day within each community and our regions we need to support the regional leadership and the health directors to try to make sure that, to the best of their ability, they can support the protection of the elders, pregnant women, children and other individuals. If we don't take care of the most vulnerable, we will not be able to eventually come out of the pandemic and minimize both hospitalizations and fatalities in the communities.
However, that being said, all of the long-standing social determinants of health, including housing, water, etc., are contributing to the vulnerabilities of the members of the communities, and those must be addressed.