Deputy chief medical officer of health Dr. Andre Corriveau.

By Chris Brown

a benchmark for stage 3 reopening

Alberta nearing 70% first dose vaccination goal

Jun 15, 2021 | 5:00 PM

The province is inching closer to the government’s benchmark of 70 per cent of the eligible Albertans with at least their first dose of vaccine.

Deputy chief medical officer of health Dr. Andre Corriveau more than 69 per cent of Albertans over the age of 12 have received at least one dose of vaccine.

He urged people to get vaccinated during the Tuesday COVID-19 update and stressed the safety of vaccines.

“If you’re still unsure about whether to get vaccinated or are worried about vaccine safety, I encourage you to arm yourself with accurate information. Vaccines are safe, effective and they do save lives,” he said.

Corriveau said to date there have been 559 adverse events among those who have received a dose, roughly 0.015 per cent of all people who’ve been vaccinated.

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He said most were minor events such as pain, headache and fever and sever adverse reactions have been exceedingly rare.

As of Tuesday, 69.4 per cent of Albertans over the age of 12 have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 22 per cent have received two shots.

“So we’re getting very close to our objective of 70 per cent,” Corriveau said. “the Open for Summer lottery that was announced yesterday is one additional way to bring us closer to the goal of collectively returning to a more normal life and I hope it will inspire even more Albertans to get vaccinated over the coming weeks.”

He said the more people who have been immunized, the better protected everyone is.

New data shows two doses are close to 90 per cent effective even against the Delta variant first identified in India.

“The second dose is really critical to consolidate the gains so we’re hoping to maintain the momentum and we’re working really hard to find ways to accelerate access to the second doses to all Albertans,” Corriveau said.

An announcement on moving up eligibility for second doses is to come later this week.

The deputy chief medical officer of health provided the update. Chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw is taking the week off to spend with her family.

(CHAT News Today)