April Duchscherer, pharmacist/owner of Solutions Pharmacy in Medicine Hat, administers a Moderna COVID vaccine to a recipient on Monday. Starting Monday an increased number of pharmacies across the province began offering the vaccine.--GILLIAN SLADE
Several pharmacies in Medicine Hat and Redcliff are now offering COVID vaccinations to the public in an arrangement with Alberta Health.
People were arriving for appointments on Monday at Solutions Pharmacy in Medicine Hat.
“We are currently offering Moderna vaccine,” said pharmacist/owner April Duchscherer. “We want to be a place where it is easy for clients to access their vaccine.”
Solutions Pharmacy is scheduled to receive 400 doses of Moderna vaccine each week. A reporting system with the government keeps track on a daily basis of appointments made and doses administered, said Duchscherer. Additional staff were hired and a team was trained to handle the volume of requests.
“We are ready,” she said.
Other pharmacies in Medicine Hat and Redcliff offering the COVID vaccine include:
– London Drugs, 13th Avenue SE, 403-580-4103 or londondrugs.com/covid19
– Sandstone Pharmacies Crescent Heights, 25 Eighth Street NW, 587-318-0999
– South Country Co-op Limited at Northlands Pharmacy, 10 Northlands Way NE, 403-528-6608 or cooprx.ca
– South Country Co-op Limited at the 13th Avenue pharmacy, 109-3030 13th Ave. SE, 403-528-6604 or cooprx.ca
– Pharmasave 304-114 Broadway Ave. E., Redcliff, 403-548-3838
– Solutions Pharmacy, 2020 Strachan Rd. SE. Appointments can be made either online: solutionspharmacy.ca, by calling 403-928-7900, or email: clinicmanager@solutionspharmacy.ca. Phone messages are to be returned within 48 hours.
“We are committed to ensure that each and every vaccine allocated to us will be used to accommodate each person in the order that the request was received,” said Duchscherer.
Anyone between the ages of 65 and 75 currently qualifies for the vaccine.
The government booking system or telephone option through Health Link 811 was only taking bookings Monday for people born in 1947. Other birth years are to be announced in the coming days.
Pharmacies are taking appointments for people in all those birth years as long as you are between 65 and 75, born between 1947 and 1956.
As Duscherer prepared a vaccine dose for her next appointment Monday, she said each container of the Moderna vaccine is viable for only six hours after it has been punctured for the first dose. She said government protocol requires them to schedule appointments to ensure there is always a person who qualifies for the vaccine available so not a single dose is wasted.
Effective Monday, more than 250 pharmacies across the province began providing COVID-19 immunizations with either Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, the government’s website states.
More information on pharmacies providing the COVID vaccine can be found at
http://www.ab.bluecross.ca/news/covid-19-immunization-program-information.php[Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct an area code in the contact information of one pharmacy in Medicine Hat. The correct local number for the Sandstone Pharmacy in Crescent Heights is 587-318-0999, rather than a similar number with a 403 prefix.]
