HALIFAX: With the number of daily cases is going up, as are cases in the Eastern Zone, work is underway to open local COVID-19 vaccine clinics.
On March 8, appointments will be accepted, and on March 15, a new community vaccine clinic will open in the MacKay Room in Bloomfield Centre in the StFX University campus, the province has confirmed.
According to the province, the plan is to vaccinate 550 people each week at the clinic which will be staffed by hospital staff from St. Martha’s Regional Hospital and surrounding areas, long-term care health care workers, paramedics, designated first medical responders, and First Nations healthcare workers.
Today, the province confirmed that a pharmacy prototype clinic will launch on March 16 in Port Hawkesbury.
These prototypes will help inform any changes in how vaccine is delivered through pharmacies before expanding to other locations in April, the province said, noting that those eligible to receive the vaccine through one of these initial clinics will receive an invitation to participate from their pharmacy.
To launch the clinics, MSI started sending letters to all Nova Scotians ages 80 and older as of March 1, the province explained, noting that anyone who turns 80 after March 1, will be able to book an appointment as of their 80th birthday. According to the province, there are 48,000 Nova Scotians who will be age 80 and older as of March 1.
Appointments can be booked online at: https://www.novascotia.ca/vaccination or by calling toll-free 1-833-797-7772 the week before the clinic opens.
Millbrook First Nation is the first of 13 Mi’kmaw communities to host a COVID-19 vaccination clinic, and the clinics in Mi’kmaw communities will administer vaccine to those living in the community, the province noted.
Lindsay Peach, executive director of Mi’kmaw Health and Wellness, told The Reporter that communities which started receiving vaccine supply last month, and will continue to get it this week, include Paqtnkek, Potlotek and We’koqma’q.
“Vaccination clinics will be planned and operated by health centre staff, physicians, and leadership of each First Nation community,” she explained. “Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness, and Public Health, with Nova Scotia Health, coordinate the supply of vaccine to communities and work collaboratively with health directors and health centre staff in each First Nation community to support readiness as needed.”
Nova Scotia’s COVID-19 immunization plan is also expanding to include anyone who works in a hospital and may come into contact with patients and community health care providers who provide direct patient care, the province said.
According to the province, this includes: doctors, nurses and continuing care assistants who work in community practice or provide care in the home; dentists, dental assistants and dental hygienists; and pharmacists, pharmacy assistants and pharmacy technicians.
The province said health care workers in the next group will receive an invitation to schedule their appointment.
Shelley Stewart, an ICU nurse at St Martha’s, received her first dose of Pfizer vaccine on Feb. 22 in Antigonish from Public Health LPN Amanda MacDonald-Venedam.
“It’s wonderful for St Martha’s to have the clinic started today,” she said in a press release from the Nova Scotia Health Authority. “It’s very exciting and a relief. It’s been highly anticipated and there is a lot of action here this morning with a lot of people looking forward to their first dose.”
More information on Nova Scotia’s COVID-19 immunization plan is available at: https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus/vaccine/.