Photo: Government of Alberta

By EverythingGP Staff

First vaccines given

COVID-19 vaccinations begin in Alberta, new outreach programs announced

Dec 15, 2020 | 5:53 PM

The first COVID-19 vaccinations in Alberta are now happening.

Sahra Kaahiye, a respiratory therapist at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton, and Tanya Harvey, an intensive care nurse at the Foothills Medical Centre Cell in Calgary, were the first to receive the vaccine Tuesday afternoon.

The initial 3,900 doses of the Pfizer Biontech vaccine arrived in the province late Monday night and is being offered to priority health-care workers at two vaccine sites – one in Edmonton and one in Calgary. A further 25,350 doses are expected to arrive in Alberta on Dec. 21.

The first batch of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is also expected to arrive in Alberta within the next week or so.

“This is all wonderfully good news. Hope is here and the end of this terrible time is finally within sight,” Premier Jason Kenney said Tuesday.

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New outreach programs and supports are also being rolled out in 11 areas of highest infection and transmission. Nine of those areas are in Edmonton, two in Calgary.

“These heaviest-hit neighbourhoods tend to be lower-income areas where people naturally live in higher-density housing arrangements, sometimes with multi-generational families that can make it very difficult for families to self-isolate effectively if needed,” Kenney explained.

In some cases there are elderly members at home, making seniors are more vulnerable to infection and many in the neighbourhoods also have English language barriers, Kenney said.

COVID Care Teams will be established in those neighbourhoods in partnership with local municipal and community leaders.

Kenney says they’ll provide “on-the-ground outreach and very practical support.”

“These teams will go right into these neighbourhoods in a safe, co-ordinated and community-minded way to ensure that residents have the understanding, the tools and the support they need to break the chain of transmission in their area.”

Care packages with masks, sanitizer, and information in multiple languages will be delivered in these areas. Safe transportation to COVID-19 assessment and testing facilities will also be available.

The premier also announced a “massive expansion” of self-isolation housing support to help stop transmission.

“Alberta now has 16 self-isolation hotels ready for those who need them,” Kenney shared.

Six of these hotels are locate in Calgary, nine in Edmonton and one in Peace River. Kenney said the province is working to procure additional hotels in Calgary and Edmonton, as well as in Red Deer and Fort McMurray.

Individuals in these areas who test positive for COVID-19 will be eligible for a free-of-charge hotel room stay of 14 days, complete with culturally appropriate food. These individuals will also be eligible for temporary financial aid in the amount of $625 when they have completed their self-isolation.

(With file from Chris Brown – CHAT News Today)