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A surge of bookings over the past two days has cut into Alberta’s vaccine supply. But more is on the way, says Premier Jason Kenney
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Millennial Calgarians signed up en masse for COVID-19 vaccines Thursday, prompting the province to redirect resources to the city.
The news comes as Alberta reports a record-smashing day of immunizations against the novel coronavirus.
Premier Jason Kenney said Friday morning more vaccine clinics targeted for large workplaces or specific cultural groups will also come to Calgary.
“We have seen relatively more bookings in Calgary than in other health zones, so Alberta Health Services will be re-adjusting their supply allocation to match the demand where it is,” Kenney said. “We don’t want to turn anyone away, obviously.
“There will be a broader array of community-specific opportunities to get vaccinated.”
Vaccine signups for Albertans born in 1991 and earlier began Thursday morning, the first step in the expansion of immunizations to the general public in Phase 3.
More than 154,000 appointments had been booked through AHS by noon Friday, the health authority said, accounting for about 3.5 per cent of the province’s population. That count doesn’t include bookings made through pharmacies.
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The demand means there are currently more appointments booked than there are doses available in Alberta, Kenney said, but an influx of vials into Alberta is expected soon.
“What we’re banking on is additional incoming supply,” Kenney said.
“This week, we have received, we estimate, 350,000 doses. Next week, the week of May 10, we’ll be receiving 271,000, and the following week, 357,000 doses.”
Alberta broke its record for daily doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered on Thursday, reporting 59,730 additional shots given. The newly eligible group of Albertans aged 30 to 39 accounted for about a quarter of those shots.
The banner day for the province’s immunization campaign brought it to another milestone, with one-third of all Albertans having now received at least one dose of vaccine.
In total, 1.48 million Albertans have had at least one shot, which represents 41.2 per cent of those age 16 or over.
On Friday, Kenney announced a new partnership with the state of Montana that will see up to 2,000 Alberta truckers get the jab while on the job in the United States.
The agreement is meant to help maintain supply chains across the U.S. border, Kenney said, and will allow truckers to get immunized with the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine at a rest stop in Conrad, about 80 kilometres south of the Coutts border crossing.
About 800 trucks cross from Alberta into Montana each day, the premier said. The agreement is similar to ones made between North Dakota and the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
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Though Alberta’s daily COVID-19 case count dropped below 2,000 in figures released Friday, high transmission rates continued, with an additional 1,980 infections reported.
The new cases come from almost 19,000 tests, representing a 10.5 per cent positivity rate.
Both hospitalization and intensive-care unit admission levels for COVID-19 patients rose slightly. There are now 659 people in Alberta hospitals with COVID-19, 150 of whom are in ICUs, up from 654 and 146, respectively.
The Calgary and Edmonton regions each have similar hospital utilization numbers from COVID-19, with each area reporting about 235 hospitalizations and 60 ICU admissions.
Active case counts also continued to rise, hitting a new high of 24,850. In Alberta’s second wave, active case counts never exceeded 21,000.
Four more deaths were also reported, including two Calgary-area residents in their 60s. Alberta’s toll from COVID-19 stands at 2,106.
AHS has taken legal action against organizers of large gatherings and rallies held in defiance of COVID-19 restrictions.
The health authority said late Thursday they had sought and received a pre-emptive injunction from the Court of Queen’s Bench against the Whistle Stop Café near Mirror and its owner, Chris Scott. A rally that had been planned at the restaurant for this weekend has been designated an illegal event, with police authorized to arrest and detain organizers.
The previous day, AHS had changed the locks on the eatery after it ignored repeated orders to cease dine-in service.
In a Facebook livestream Friday, Scott acknowledged the injunction and called on people not to gather illegally at the restaurant.
jherring@postmedia.com
Twitter: @jasonfherring
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