‘We want to get as many priority health-care workers vaccinated as quickly as we can in order to protect the most vulnerable among us’
Alberta Health Services and Covenant Health are piloting the use of temporary vaccine clinics in emergency departments in hospitals across Alberta.
This is to give eligible emergency department staff and physicians more chances to receive COVID-19 vaccine, according to the government.
“We’ve seen incredible success with Alberta’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout and this is a testament to our continued ability to be flexible and introduce new tools to maximize the number of doses getting in the arms of eligible health-care workers,” said Tyler Shandro, minister of health. “We want to get as many priority health-care workers vaccinated as quickly as we can in order to protect the most vulnerable among us.”
Nine satellite clinics have already taken place in the province, with more than 425 emergency department staff vaccinated.
“These satellite clinics are increasing opportunities for eligible emergency department staff and physicians to get vaccinated and are another way Alberta Health Services and Covenant Health are working to provide COVID-19 vaccine to as many health-care workers as possible during this first phase of the vaccine rollout,” said Dr. Verna Yiu, president and CEO, Alberta Health Services.
Similar to other provinces, Alberta’s phased approach to vaccination focuses first on priority health-care workers and those who are at highest risk of severe outcomes. These include:
- health-care workers in COVID-19 units, medical and surgical units, and operating rooms
- health-care workers in emergency departments
- home-care workers
- staff of long-term care and designated supportive living facilities
- respiratory therapists
On Jan. 11, Alberta added paramedics and emergency medical technicians on the list.
Recently, SEIU Healthcare called on the Ontario government to speed up vaccination of essential frontline workers across the entire healthcare system.
As of 5:15 p.m. of Jan. 14, 2021, Alberta had 12,434 active cases in the province, 967 of which were recorded over the previous 24 hours. As of Jan. 13, 66,953 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the province, according to the government.
