MONTREAL —
Public health officials in Quebec plan to administer the first COVID-19 vaccines today.
Residents of two long-term care homes in the province will be the first to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The first package arrived at Maimonides Geriatric Centre in Cote-St-Luc Monday morning.
Montreal’s West Island health and social services (OIM-CIUSSS) president Francine Dupuis said that staff ran a simulation on the weekend, and another one this morning.
“Everybody is excited, they’re all very happy. At last, some good news in the health system,” she said. “We’re all very delighted. It’s going to protect themselves and it’s going to protect all the people around them.”
Dupuis said there were a high number of people who want the vaccine, but some who do not, and that there is no obligation for people to accept it.
She said they expect to inoculate four to six people per hour at the beginning, and that the rate will likely speed up as heath-care workers become more used to the protocols.
The toughest part, she said it to follow the protocols “very, very thoroughly,” and to “respect every step without making any mistakes.”
She was confident the staff was adequately prepared, though.
“It’s under control with the pharmacists and the doctors and nurses. They’ve done it over and over again, the dry run, so they know exactly what they’re doing,” she said.
Minister of Health and Social Services Christian Dube will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. Monday at the Maimonides in Cote-Saint-Luc with director of public health Dr. Richard Masse.
In Quebec City, residents of the Saint-Antoine long-term care home will receive the vaccine first, followed by health-care workers at that facility.
Deputy Premier Genevieve Guilbault along with the director of Quebec’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign Daniel Pare will hold a news conference at the Saint-Antoine long-term care centre in Quebec City at 4 p.m.
Dupuis says the agency expects to receive 1,950 initial doses, which will first go to residents, to Maimonides staff and then to health-care workers in other long-term care homes. She said there are 975 doses per box.
Both news conferences will be broadcast live on CTV News Montreal’s website.
Officials say they hope the vaccine will help protect the most vulnerable people in the province while bringing the pandemic under control.
Those who are vaccinated will still need to take precautions, warned Dupuis.
“They have to remember, though, that they are not protected immediately. They have to get a second dose three weeks after. And then the protection starts one week or two weeks after that second dose,” she said.
“So they have to be very, very careful. And even after that, I would suggest they be careful, because you never know. It’s 95 per cent efficient, it’s not 100 per cent, so it’s a good thing to get, but it’s not a miracle.”
— With files from The Canadian Press.
