Council urges local vaccine clinics, province's response `not good enough'
Some Calgary city council members frustrated by the province's response to Alberta's COVID -19 crisis are pushing for city-led vaccination pop-ups or mobile clinics using fleet vehicles or municipal buses.
“I am so tired of asking the province,” Coun. Druh Farrell said at a council meeting Wednesday night. “Is there a way that we can help? Can we take vaccine buses to grocery stores? Can we go to the library? Can we do what we should be doing, which is taking vaccinations to the people?”
Responding to questions from council members Wednesday, Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) Chief Sue Henry said provincial health officials have so far turned down local offers of transit buses to distribute vaccines in the community.
“We have offered transit buses, we have offered any support that we can provide,” Henry said. “And folks are telling us that the vaccine accessibility isn't the challenge. That the walk-in clinics are there, the AHS clinics are there, the pharmacies are there and the access and appointments is no longer where the challenge sits.”
Mayor Naheed Nenshi said he agreed with Farrell, suggesting the city could lead its own program with private or community partners to offer vaccines.
“It's time to stop asking for permission. It is time for us to find our own vaccinators and our own supply,” Nenshi said. “We borrow the supply from local pharmacists and we go to train stations and we go to churches and we go to mall parking lots on a Saturday.
“I would be very pleased to see the city spearhead such a program with our partners because I'm tired of being told everything is OK by the province. It's not good enough.”
City council members heard an update on Calgary's COVID -19 situation late Wednesday night following the provincial announcement of broad new measures to curb the number of cases and address deteriorating conditions in hospitals. CEMA officials said the COVID -19 situation has worsened in Calgary since the last briefing at council in early September, with 251 hospitalizations on Sept. 16, up from 129 on Sept. 3. Calgary's test positivity rate has also climbed to 8.06 per cent, up from 7.4 per cent.
Henry said one of the key priorities is improving vaccination rates among 12- to 39-year-olds.
Nenshi said he's been pushing for more targeted vaccination outreach. He said he was mocked by AHS officials for suggesting a vaccine clinic on the grounds of the Calgary Stampede.
“I was roundly mocked by the leadership of AHS (for) suggesting that we might want to actually go where 20-somethings are and use this as an opportunity to do some outreach and get them vaccinated,” Nenshi said Wednesday.
“That's why I say we've got to start doing that kind of targeting ourselves, because we can't rely on AHS to do it.”
Other organizations have also sought to host clinics with local or provincial health partners.
“YMCA Calgary has approached government and health officials to provide support to the provincial vaccination effort,” Ken Lima-coelho, vice-president of communications for YMCA Calgary, wrote in a message to Postmedia. “We would be very willing to host in-community vaccination clinics inside our facilities in order to help our community eradicate COVID -19.”
Several council members complained that the new provincial measures are confusing and difficult to understand. Some councillors and mayoral candidates have suggested council should enact bylaws to strengthen public health rules in Calgary. City solicitor Jill Floen said similar to the municipal mask mandate, city council does have the authority to mandate local use of vaccine passports.
Wednesday's meeting was supposed to be council's last for the term, but council members voted to waive the procedure bylaw to ensure council could be recalled if necessary to enact measures to address the pandemic.