By Canadian Press

Quebec to begin inoculating against COVID-19 as first vaccines arrive

Dec 14, 2020 | 7:19 AM

MONTREAL — Quebec’s first COVID-19 vaccinations will be administered Monday afternoon in Montreal, a public health official said, as health-care workers prepared for what is being called the “historic” rollout of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Francine Dupuis, associate CEO of the regional health authority for west-central Montreal, said residents of Maimonides Geriatric Centre would receive the first shots around 1 p.m.

Health Minister Christian Dube and Dr. Richard Masse, senior adviser to the province’s public health director, will be at the centre at that time.

“Since it’s the first day and a historic event, we ideally want to do it in the presence of the health minister,” Dupuis told reporters Monday morning.

Residents of Maimonides and another long-term care home in Quebec City, Saint-Antoine, will be the first in the province to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was approved for use in Canada last week.

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Dupuis said health-care workers would do a dry run Monday morning in preparation for the inoculations.

She said the health authority expects to receive 1,950 initial doses, which will first go to Maimonides residents and staff and then to health-care workers in other long-term care homes.

A few hundred residents of Maimonides have given their consent to be vaccinated, Dupuis said.

“The important thing is not to lose any doses and to take into consideration the fact that we can’t move the vaccine,” she said. 

“We won’t lose any doses,” she added.

Health officials are hoping the vaccine will help protect the most vulnerable people in the province while bringing the pandemic under control.

Quebec reported 1,994 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, as well as 33 additional deaths linked to the virus — bringing its total to 163,915 infections and 7,508 deaths since the pandemic began.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 14, 2020.

Jillian Kestler-D’Amours, The Canadian Press