Vaccination clinics all set, just waiting for the doses
Palais des congrès site can handle 1,000 per day, and soon double that
Christine Vézina swabbed the patient's upper arm with antiseptic and readied a syringe to administer the COVID-19 vaccine.
Vézina, a retired veterinarian who stepped forward to help with Quebec's vaccination campaign, was demonstrating on communications officer Annie Dufour what she will be doing umpteen times a day starting Thursday, when the clinic at the Palais des congrès opens for business.
The vast space on the second floor of the downtown convention centre is ready to treat up to 1,000 people per day. That capacity will eventually double, when the vaccination campaign moves into high gear.
On Monday, public health officials gave journalists an advance peek of the clinic, which will operate by appointment only.
“We have the staff,” said Dr. Louis-xavier D'aoust, medical co-ordinator of the vaccination campaign for the CIUSSS du Centre-sud-de-l'île-de-montréal. “All we need is the vaccine.” Quebec has used up most of its supply of 238,100 doses, but the government is hopeful that new deliveries will make it possible for the massive public vaccination campaign to get underway soon.
The province has administered 239,023 doses of the vaccine so far, meaning that about 2.8 per cent of the population has received a dose. (The number of doses administered is slightly higher than the number delivered, because some vials contain enough vaccine to treat six rather than five patients.)
Controversy has already marked the vaccination campaign because of the government's decision to delay the second dose, instead of following the manufacturer's recommendation to administer it 21 to 42 days after the first.
The vaccination clinic will start by inoculating health care workers, D'aoust said. As supplies increase, the campaign will be rolled out to other groups.
“As soon as we get the green light, we're going to start doing the general population,” he said.
Residents of long-term care centres have the highest priority for the vaccine, followed by healthcare workers who work with the public.
Residents of private seniors' homes are the next highest priority. After that, people ages 80-plus will get the vaccine, followed by those in their 70s, those in their 60s, people under 60 with a chronic disease or condition, essential service workers, and finally the rest of the adult population.
It will be possible to make an appointment by phone or by using Clic-santé, a website Quebecers use to book an appointment for the flu vaccine.
Seniors 80 and older were to receive their first vaccine dose starting in the middle of February, while those between 70 and 79 were to be vaccinated starting in mid-march, but a global slowdown in supplies has created uncertainty.
Last week, Maj.- Gen. Dany Fortin, who is overseeing the rollout of vaccinations in Canada, said pharmaceutical firm Pfizer was still on target to deliver four million doses of the vaccine by March 31. Pfizer has temporarily slowed supplies in order to make manufacturing changes.
Getting a vaccine at the giant clinic will be an electronic process, with patients swiping their health insurance cards under a scanner.
They will then speak to an attendant to make sure they have no COVID-19 symptoms and be informed of possible side-effects, the most common of which is a sore arm.
Once the vaccination campaign picks up speed, the clinic will be open seven days a week, 12 hours a day, D'aoust said.
Health Minister Christian Dubé announced the opening of the vaccination clinic last week. In 2009, thousands of Montrealers were inoculated against the H1N1 virus at the Palais des congrès.
In Quebec City, the Expocité exhibition centre is serving as a vaccination centre.