Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister toured Winnipeg’s first COVID-19 vaccination clinic Monday as the province gets ready to deliver its first doses this week.
Last week, health officials announced Manitoba would begin receiving 900 doses of the vaccine this week, and Monday Pallister said a priority group of health-care workers would be the first to get the vaccine starting Wednesday morning.
“We want to express our gratitude for those workers for stepping up to protect themselves, their patients and their fellow Manitobans as we begin our immunization campaign,” the premier said in a statement following his tour.
“Our COVID-19 Vaccine Implementation Task Force have been working diligently to ensure our immunization roll out is as safe and effective as possible to protect Manitobans most at risk of this deadly virus.
“The clinic has been set up in a safe and efficient manner, using updated technology for screening clients and data surveillance.”
Set up at a Winnipeg hospital, the clinic will have seven immunizers on staff to start, each able to give out six shots per hour, the province says.
Manitoba’s chief public health officer, Dr. Brent Roussin, said health officials will be monitoring the first clinic closely to work out any kinks.
“This gives us the opportunity for receiving the vaccine, storing the vaccine, having the logistics of the clinic itself,” he explained at a Monday press conference, adding the province is planning to have bigger clinics as more vaccine becomes available.
The province started booking spots for eligible health-care workers to get the COVID-19 vaccinations by phone over the weekend.
But Roussin said Monday the phone number got out to the general public, and more than 100,000 calls flooded in. Some people were dishonest in answering automated screening questions, and were later sent away by live operators in charge of booking appointments, Roussin said.
By Monday afternoon, about two-thirds of the 900 estimated qualified workers had appointments. Roussin said the weekend deluge of calls would not cause a delay in vaccinations, but will be a learning experience for the next round of shots as more shipments arrive.
He said those eligible for the vaccine will need to go through multiple screening points even once they arrive at the vaccination clinic.
After filling out a consent form, shots will be administered at a station equipped with a laptop where real-time data can be entered afterwards.
Then, those who’ve received the shots will be taken to a separate space with tables and chairs where they’ll wait for 15 to makes sure there are no side effects.
The province says roughly 330 people can be vaccinated out of the clinic in a day.
Only Manitoba health-care workers whose work involves direct contact with patients are eligible for the first shots, and they must work in either critical, acute or long-term care settings.
There are also age requirements: candidates must be 50 or older by Dec. 31 if you work in critical care, or 60 or older if you work in either acute care or long-term care.
People who will be working in the COVID-19 immunization clinics are also eligible, the province has said.
Canada’s first batch of coronavirus vaccine doses arrived in the country Sunday, and the first vaccinations were doled out in Quebec and Ontario Monday morning.
The Pfizer vaccine is the only COVID-19 vaccine approved in Canada so far.
The federal government has said just under 250,000 doses will arrive by the end of the year, which would mean a big boost in the supply arriving in the last week of December.
— With files from Kevin Hirschfield and The Canadian Press
Questions about COVID-19? Here are some things you need to know:
Symptoms can include fever, cough and difficulty breathing — very similar to a cold or flu. Some people can develop a more severe illness. People most at risk of this include older adults and people with severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease. If you develop symptoms, contact public health authorities.
To prevent the virus from spreading, experts recommend frequent handwashing and coughing into your sleeve. They also recommend minimizing contact with others, staying home as much as possible and maintaining a distance of two metres from other people if you go out. In situations where you can’t keep a safe distance from others, public health officials recommend the use of a non-medical face mask or covering to prevent spreading the respiratory droplets that can carry the virus. In some provinces and municipalities across the country, masks or face coverings are now mandatory in indoor public spaces.
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