Info lacking from Alberta Health on vaccination rate in the South zone

By GILLIAN SLADE on January 15, 2021.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade

The UCP government announced in a tweet on Thursday that all seniors in assisted living facilities in the Calgary zone have now been vaccinated.

“All Albertans living in long-term care and supportive living in the Calgary zone have received their first round of vaccination.”

The tweet singled out the situation for the Calgary zone and there are still no details about the South zone.

“Work is underway in the South Zone. We expect to have provided vaccines to all long-term care and designated supportive living sites in the province by the week of January 18,” said Tom McMillan, communications Alberta Health. “As with Calgary, we will alert Albertans when immunization in the South Zone is complete.”

Alberta Health has consistently declined to provide any data specific to a zone or city other than revealing the number of vaccine doses dispatched to some locations.

Medicine Hat received 975 doses of the Pfizer vaccine on or about Dec. 22.

Premier Jason Kenney Tweeted a photo of one woman in a Medicine Hat seniors’ residence who had received her first dose.

AHS announced before Christmas that Dr. Byron Hirsch, family physician, was the first local doctor to receive the vaccine. Several other physicians, Dr. Debakanta Jena, Dr. Paul Parks and Dr. Nicoelle Wanner, have recently shared photos of themselves getting a first dose locally. They have encouraged the public to take the opportunity to get the vaccine when there is a chance to do so.

Information on whether all 975 doses of the vaccine have now been administered or if any more has arrived in Medicine Hat is not obtainable.

A government website continues to state, as it has for several weeks, that details of the vaccine rollout by zone will be made available in the coming weeks.

Alberta Health recently announced it would be offering the second dose of the vaccine “within 42 days after the first dose. This aligns with the approach recommended by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) and the World Health Organization statements on vaccines for COVID-19.”

Alberta had administered 66,953 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines across the province by the end of the day on Jan. 13.

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