Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine was administered on Tuesday afternoon.
During a provincial COVID-19 update, Kenney announced a respiratory therapist at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton and an ICU nurse at Calgary’s Foothills Medical Centre had already been inoculated.
“This is all wonderfully good news,” he said. “Hope is here and the end of this terrible time is finally within sight.”
The province expects to receive another 25,300 doses of the Pfizer vaccine within the next week and a shipment of the Moderna vaccine in “another week or so,” Kenney said.
While appearing on the Danielle Smith Show on 770 CHQR Tuesday morning, Kenney broke the news that Alberta’s vaccination program would begin that afternoon.
“I’ve got breaking news for you, Danielle, if you’d like,” Kenney said about 45 minutes into his hour-long interview.
“I just got confirmation from AHS that the first vaccination will be administered to a nurse I believe at 4 p.m. today, I think probably in south Calgary.”
In an interview with Global News, Dr. Daniel Niven, an ICU doctor at the Peter Lougheed Centre in Calgary, confirmed he’s scheduled to get his first vaccine Tuesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Dr. Darren Markland, an ICU physician at Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital, said he’s scheduled to receive his vaccine on Friday.
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“Super excited. I think I’m going to document it so that anyone who is vaccine hesitant can actually watch somebody they know get a vaccine and see if there’s any complications there. I will be completely honest,” he said from the hospital Tuesday morning.
Markland also noted, though, that it’s important to remember with the “vaccine euphoria” that it’s a long-term solution.
“The short one right now is really to buckle down and lock down. No matter how tempted you are, just avoid holiday celebrations because that’s what’s really going to get us,” he stressed.
“We’ve done this once before, we can do it again. Everybody’s tired but the finish line is so damn close. Let’s just enjoy next Christmas.”
Read more: Alberta receives 1st shipment of COVID-19 vaccine, to start immunizations ‘as soon as possible’
It’s a sentiment Kenney echoed Tuesday afternoon.
“By the end of March, we will have hopefully vaccinated 10 per cent of our population, including the most vulnerable,” he said. “That will be a game changer. It should result in a significant decrease in the fatality rate from COVID. But, we won’t be out of the woods at the end of March.
“We’ve still got to go on to inoculate more seniors. The average age of hospitalizations is 60. There’s a lot of folks in their 50s who aren’t passing away from COVID but they are getting sick and ending up in hospital beds.”
If the province’s current timeline is followed, anyone who wants to be vaccinated should able to do so by next fall.
“We’ll continue to assess this month by month and week by week as we go through the first six months of next year,” Kenney said.
“I do think we can realistically hope for significant relaxation [of public health orders] as we move from spring to summer.”
As the program continues, Alberta Health will be releasing public reporting that will include things like how many people have been vaccinated in the different zones.
The first shipment of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Alberta on Monday night, at the Calgary airport.
“We’ve just watched UPS unload our first 3,900 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine,” Kenney said in a video posted to Twitter. “It has now arrived here in Alberta as of 5 p.m.”
The vaccine arrived ahead of schedule. On Monday, the government said the first shipment was expected Tuesday and the first vaccine was likely to be administered on Wednesday.
Health-care workers, including ICU doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists, and long-term care workers in Calgary and Edmonton will be the first to receive the vaccine.
– With files from Caley Ramsay/Global News
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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiRGh0dHBzOi8vZ2xvYmFsbmV3cy5jYS9uZXdzLzc1MjMyNTAvYWxiZXJ0YS1jb3ZpZC0xOS12YWNjaW5lLXR1ZXNkYXkv0gFIaHR0cHM6Ly9nbG9iYWxuZXdzLmNhL25ld3MvNzUyMzI1MC9hbGJlcnRhLWNvdmlkLTE5LXZhY2NpbmUtdHVlc2RheS9hbXAv?oc=5
2020-12-15 22:58:03Z
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