In a scene reminiscent of the early days of rock concerts, hundreds of people gathered early with lawn chairs and water bottles Thursday in the hopes of scoring a coveted walk-in COVID-19 vaccine dose.
As of 7:45 a.m., about 200 people had lined up at the Leila Avenue supersite, with 430 doses available, said the province.
The line-up came at the heels of more than 1,750 doses administered at the site Wednesday for walk-ins.
“One thousand, seven hundred and sixty-one doses were given out to walk-ins yesterday, and 1,298 of those were first doses,” said a spokesperson for the province on Wednesday.
“That left us with about 430 doses for today.”
The spokesperson said they weren’t sure at what point they turned those without appointments away from the site Wednesday.
“While we want second-dose individuals to get their dose sooner if they would like it. We don’t want to get in the way of someone who doesn’t have any protection yet,” said Johanu Botha, co-lead of Manitoba’s vaccine implementation task force on Wednesday.
“That’s been the direction from the clinical side. We need to find a balance between dose to speed and dose number one accessibility.”
As of 8:30 a.m., people started to leave as walk-in appointments were now full.