Prince Edward Island’s first community vaccination clinic opened in Charlottetown on Monday, and Elinor Neuffe was one of about 150 Islanders age 80 and over to get their shot.
„I’m feeling very lucky that we are able to get them,” Neuffe, said after receiving her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine three months away from her 82nd birthday. „Let’s just hope that pretty soon the whole world will be vaccinated, or 80 per cent.”
Later this week, clinics will open in Summerside, Montague and O’Leary. The province is planning to get about 900 vaccinations done a week at the clinics, with all the booked appointments for first and second doses cleared by the end of March.
The province has also made plans for clinics to inoculate Indigenous adults. The Chief Public Health Office is working with health-care centres in Abegweit and Lennox Island First Nations to get everything in place, with those clinics set to open next Monday.
Elsewhere in Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia also expanded its vaccination efforts on Monday with a prototype clinic for people aged 80 and up at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax.
Bernice Burns, 82, was the first one to get a shot at 8 a.m. „It’s an honour really, it really is,” Burns said after rolling up her sleeve for the vaccination. „I was very excited when they called me.”
Burns said she won’t necessarily be going out more until everyone else also has the vaccine. She said she might feel safer when she gets her second dose, but that doesn’t mean she’ll start ducking any public health rules.
Five hundred people have been invited to get their first shot at the clinic over the next four days. They were chosen randomly from among people 80 years and older who live within 100 kilometres of the IWK. They will receive a followup shot in several weeks.
The first prototype clinic is designed to figure out the most efficient way to vaccinate the 48,000 people in the province over the age of 80.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang said clinic staff will examine the best way to make sure that people are aware of the clinic and to get them through the doors. Researchers at Monday’s clinic will conduct interviews with people being vaccinated.
