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The Yamal Peninsula in northwestern Siberia is one of the few remaining places on Earth where a nomadic people preserved a traditional culture. In the tundra, the Nenets, an Indigenous minority in northern Russia, follow a lifestyle shaped by the seasonal migrations of their herd, reindeer.
As Covid stopped travel in many parts of the world, Yamal’s Nenets continued to move. From December to April, shepherds set up their camps and graze their reindeer in the Nadymski region, centered on the city of Nadym, an area of approximately 40,000 square miles at the base of the Yamal Peninsula. In mid-April they begin their nomadic season, “kaslanie,” traveling with their herds about 400 miles up the peninsula and changing camps 30 to 100 times throughout the year.
But the epidemic has even reached here. More than 100 new coronavirus cases are recorded in the region each day, as well as three to five deaths among infected patients.
“We learned about the coronavirus from television and most of the sick people were in cities and towns,” said reindeer herder Ivan Khudi. “This scourge probably eluded us because we were far from civilization. For example, I have been ‘isolating myself’ for 61 years since I was born.
Now the vaccine has arrived. Most herders set up their camps along the snow-covered highway for 200 miles with no turns or exits—small groups of friends, traditional tents that resemble wigwams and are equipped with electric generators and satellite dishes tuned to Russian TV stations. Between Nadym and Salekhard. Medical buses with doctors and nurses travel along the highway and stop at convenient points to vaccinate eager shepherds. More than 135,000 people are fully vaccinated against coronavirus in Yamal, including about 56 percent of eligible adults.
In late February, a vaccination point was established not far from Mr. Khudi’s camp. The site consisted of several mobile medical units. One was undergoing a medical examination; vaccines in others. Nearby, in tarpaulin tents, tundra residents filled out questionnaires and sipped hot tea after being vaccinated.
“Will they bring gas?” a man asked. Fuel is of immense value to nomadic people, and petrol outlets are sometimes set up nearby. In an area next to the vaccination site, a pediatrician was examining the children. Tundra residents often do not have the opportunity to take their children to the doctor, so the presence of a pediatrician is also a draw.
Vaccination is no stranger to shepherds. In August 2016, an anomalous heatwave led to an anthrax epidemic in Yamal that killed 2,000 reindeer and a child and hospitalized dozens. Every March since then, reindeer and people in Yamal have been vaccinated against the disease.
Some shepherds in the Covid vaccine field were cold at the idea of getting vaccinated. “We live in the tundra,” said one man. “Why do we need this? I got my wife vaccinated, but I’m not going to get vaccinated myself.”
However, by the end of the day, dozens of people had been vaccinated. In the evening paramedics returned to Nadym for another spot on the tundra highway the next day.
“We’re doing massive explanatory work among tundra inhabitants,” said a nurse from Nadym. “But there are still a lot of people who don’t want to be vaccinated, and it’s very difficult to reverse the situation.”
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