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‘It’s all set up’: Some New Brunswick seniors eager to roll up sleeves for COVID-19 vaccine

Click to play video: 'N.B. pharmacists and seniors eager to see COVID-19 vaccine rollout expand'
N.B. pharmacists and seniors eager to see COVID-19 vaccine rollout expand
New Brunswick pharmacists and seniors are eager to see the vaccine distribution program expand. Thursday, the province announced pharmacists would start administering vaccines as early as next week. And as Callum Smith reports, there's many who are eager to roll up their sleeves – Mar 12, 2021

Alma Stewart, 92, is a resident at Peoples Park Tower in Moncton. She’s been following news of vaccines arriving in the province and across the globe, but worries about the contagiousness of COVID-19 variants.

Spending much of the past year isolated from people outside the facility has been difficult for her and many others.

“I’m not an indoor person,” she told Global News, “and we have to stay in and that drives me crazy.”

Her son and daughter are even more eager to get her vaccinated, so they can visit her without fear of unknowingly transmitting the virus and putting her at risk.

“He wondered if he could come give [COVID-19] to me,” she says of her son. “They figure [at] my young age … that I might catch it.”
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“I have an appointment for the 24th,” she says. “It’s all set up.”

Stewart won’t even have to leave the building for her appointment because the Medicine Shoppe, the in-house pharmacy, will be administering immunizations.

The New Brunswick government announced Thursday people 85 and older can now contact pharmacies to book vaccination appointments.

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In the Moncton area, the vaccines will arrive on March 23.

Click to play video: 'New Brunswick updates COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan'
New Brunswick updates COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan

The New Brunswick Senior Citizens Federation admits there are some concerns about accessibility for that age demographic.

“I do have some concerns especially the people in the rural areas,” Alphonse Dionne, the federation’s president says. “But you know most areas have pharmacies. So as long as it’s at all pharmacies, to me that’s acceptable.”

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The province says vaccines will be available at “nearly every pharmacy” across the province. Overall, Dionne says pharmacies make the most sense.

“I think that’s a great idea,” he says.

Dionne, 78, says he’s “very anxious” for his turn to get inoculated, adding he’d take “whichever one [is] available.”

Currently in Canada there are four approved vaccines, although the AstraZeneca shot is not recommended for use in seniors.

Click to play video: 'Is the AstraZeneca vaccine safe for Canadians? Doctor answers our COVID-19 questions'
Is the AstraZeneca vaccine safe for Canadians? Doctor answers our COVID-19 questions

 Andrew Drover, the pharmacist and owner of Harrisville Pharmacy in Moncton, received his vaccination Friday to help keep people protected when he starts administering the shots.

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“Pharmacists [administered] 147,000 flu shots last fall in a very short period of time,” he says. “So we have the knowledge and skill, and we have the logistics to be able to deliver on mass immunization such as this.”

As for Stewart, she’s looking forward to being able to socialize again — without masks and physical distancing — sometime soon.

“I can’t wait,” she says.

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