(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Troy Gillard

supply running low

Alberta paramedics, emergency medical responders eligible for COVID-19 vaccines

Jan 11, 2021 | 4:34 PM

Alberta’s COVID-19 vaccination program is being expanded to include more health-care workers.

“Starting right away paramedics and emergency medical responders will also be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccines,” Premier Jason Kenney announced Monday.

“Paramedics are on the front line, first and foremost as health-care workers,” said Health Minister Tyler Shandro. “They are a vital component of our COVID response and I know that all paramedics are working day in and day out to keep Albertans safe.”

“Adding paramedics to the early prioritization list recognizes the unique challenges that we face as front-line health-care workers serving in the midst of a pandemic,” said Dusty Myshrall, president, Alberta Paramedic Association.

Health-care workers who are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine include:

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• Health-care workers in COVID-19 units, medical and surgical units, and operating rooms
• Health-care workers in emergency departments
• Home-care workers
• Staff of long-term care and designated supportive living facilities
• Respiratory therapists
• Paramedics and emergency medical technicians.

Kenney says the province’s expansion of eligibility and capacity to administer the vaccine is happening even as doses are in short supply in Alberta.

He said the province is set to run out of doses about one week from now.

“The bottom line is this, Alberta’s capacity to give people the jab will soon outstrip available supplies. And we’re doing everything humanly possible to roll out these life-saving vaccines as quickly as they arrive.”

Kenney added, “In the meantime, my direction to Alberta’s health-care system is clear – to create the fastest possible system for inoculation driven by urgency despite the projected and current supply shortages.”

Alberta opened COVID-19 vaccinations to health-care workers in COVID units, as well as medical and surgical units this past Friday, Jan. 8.

Plans for inoculating seniors in the general population over 75 years old and those on First Nations communities over 65 years old will be announced soon, said Kenney.

As of Sunday, Kenney said, 46,791 doses have been administered to long-term-care residents, respiratory therapists, ICU nurses and doctors and other frontline health care workers. More than three-quarters of the doses in Alberta have been given.

Kenney says he’s confident Alberta will have the capacity to administer 50,000 doses per week by the end of January and the stretch goal is to increase capacity to 200,000 per week by the end of March.

In a news release on Monday, NDP leader Rachel Notley said the best thing Kenney can do to improve Alberta’s vaccine programis to remove himself from being the face of it, and allow Albertans to hear directly from the Vaccine Task Force.

“There is nothing more critical for Albertans at this moment than a successful vaccine program,” said Notley. “For the sake of our health system, and our economy, we cannot afford for Jason Kenney and the UCP to get this wrong.”