AHS recruiting help for ramped-up COVID vaccination effort
Alberta Health Services is hiring to bolster its COVID-19 immunization efforts amid a slower-than-expected rollout of the vaccine.
But while AHS officials won't say how many people they hope to recruit, they insist there's a sufficient workforce to deliver the 46,000 doses of Pfizer-biontech and Moderna vaccines that have been delivered to the province.
“AHS has the staffing needed to deliver all current supply of the vaccine,” said an AHS statement provided Thursday.
On Friday, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said the province has “significantly accelerated” the pace of vaccinations after falling short of targets in 2020.
In total, 3,142 shots were administered Thursday, with an additional 3,000 estimated for Friday.
The inoculations will bring Alberta to about 17,000 overall, Kenney said, more than twice the total 7,000 shots that had been administered only three days earlier.
Alberta's first vaccination took place Dec. 16. Kenney said Alberta is approaching a pace of 4,000 inoculations each day, something he credited to the introduction of the Moderna vaccine in long-term care homes.
More staffing help could be needed as more vaccine arrives and its distribution widens into larger sections of the population, AHS said.
“We will adjust the number of additional staff needed as the vaccine continues to arrive,” the health authority said.
“However, AHS has already received expressions of interest from hundreds of people, so we are confident we will be adequately staffed to meet our targets.”
AHS said it is seeking retired health-care workers, pharmacists and undergraduate nurses to fill any possible gaps in the monumental task of vaccinating millions of Albertans.
Some Albertans, including physicians, have criticized the initial hesitancy of the rollout.
Iranian-born physician Emel Ghaferi's offers to help during the first wave of the pandemic went for naught, so she returned to her homeland for three months where she worked in hospitals and clinics.
She was back in Edmonton in September and is now an office manager of a dental clinic, but said she'd be willing to assist vaccination programs part-time.
“I could work on holidays or weekends; I'd be more than happy to work under supervision at this time,” said Ghaferi, whose Canadian qualifications are just shy of being able to practise medicine independently.
“We need each other, we need to get this done.”
One of her foreign-credentialed colleagues, who has extensive experience with infectious disease control in West Africa, left Alberta for a medical job in Manitoba last fall.
Deidre Lake said she hopes AHS will tap more foreign medical graduates for immunization efforts after 60 members of her organization were hired to assist contact tracing when that system was overwhelmed by rapidly mounting COVID-19 cases two months ago.
“We do have 1,200 members and I do know many of them are looking for jobs,” said Lake, executive director of the Alberta International Medical Graduates Association of Alberta.
The province has said it hopes to expand its contact tracing staff to 1,800 by year's end. When reached Thursday, AHS declined to provide an estimate on how many staff had been hired, instead saying 1,100 were on board by mid-december.
Phase 1 of the vaccination program involves immunizing frontline health-care workers, longterm care residents and staff, those over 75 years of age and First Nations seniors.
Its second phase, due to begin in April, will include more highrisk populations while the third instalment will expand to the general population in the fall of 2021, says AHS.
Province reports about 2,500 new cases on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 as infection rates trend back up
Alberta released “modified” information on COVID-19 in the province on both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, forgoing a comprehensive update over the holidays.
Rather than provide precise values, chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw posted on Twitter “estimates” for cases each day.
On Thursday, the province reported about 1,200 new cases. On Friday, that number climbed to about 1,300 new cases.
Each day's infections came from more than 16,000 tests, representing a 7.1 per cent and an eight per cent positivity rate on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
As well, Hinshaw said there was an “increase” in hospital admissions for COVID-19 on Thursday but said they remained “stable” on Friday. ICU admissions were reported as remaining stable each day.
The province did not report whether any new COVID-19 fatalities had occurred.
As of Wednesday, at least 1,046 Albertans have died of the novel coronavirus, including 466 in December alone.
At last report, there were 921 Albertans in hospital with COVID-19, including 152 receiving treatment in intensive-care units.
I could work on holidays or weekends; I'd be more than happy to work ... we need to get this done.