Mobile clinic at MH Mall this weekend

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on October 30, 2021.

https://www.medicinehatnews.com@MedicineHatNews

A mobile vaccination clinic will be set up at the Medicine Hat Mall for the third straight week this weekend in an attempt to boost local vaccination rate.

In September the City of Medicine Hat and Alberta Heath Services said they would team up to bring walk-up appointments to the city in partnership with “19 to Zero,” a group of medical professionals with a vaccine clinic fitted into a bus.

This weekend it will be located at the Carry Drive entrance to the Medicine Hat Mall, from 1-6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.

No appointment is needed to receive first of second shots of the COVID-19 vaccine, but attendees should bring relevant information, their health card and practice good hygiene and adhere to health restriction protocols.

Local vaxx rates rise

The most recent figures posted by Alberta Health state that 83.5% of Hatters older than 12 had a first dose of vaccine and 76.3% were considered fully immunized as of Oct. 27.

The corresponding province-wide averages were 86.8% and 79.6%, respectively.

Over the previous seven days, 351 first doses were administered in Medicine Hat (about two thirds going to those aged 20-59) along with 900 second shots to all age groups.

Roughly 59,100 people in Medicine Hat are older than 12 and therefore eligible to receive the vaccine. About four in five have had at least a first shot (49,355) and three out of four are fully immunized (45,109).

AHS: Forty Mile rates a concern

Health officials state uptake in the County of Forty Mile ranks second lowest in the province and that increases the risk of spreading infection and severe outcomes.

In the region, just more than half of eligible County of Forty Mile residents have received a first shot (51.2%, or 2,526 people), and proportion of fully immunized residents is just over one-third (34%).

That only ranks higher than the area around High Level in the province’s extreme northwest region, where only one-quarter of the population has received a first shot.

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