Some area residents are getting a jump on their second dose of the COVID vaccine.
Public Health has announced it is speeding up booster shots for certain eligibility groups, including high risk health care workers, dialysis patients, and all First Nations, Inuit and Métis individuals.
High-risk health care workers eligible for the shortened second-dose include:
- All hospital and acute care staff in frontline roles with COVID-19 patients and/or with a high-risk of exposure to COVID-19, including nurses and personal support workers and those performing aerosol-generating procedures;
- All patient-facing health care workers involved in the COVID-19 response;
- Medical First Responders;
- Community health care workers serving specialized populations;
- Long-term care home and retirement-home health care workers, including nurses and personal support workers and Essential Caregivers;
- Individuals working in Community Health Centers serving disproportionally affected communities and/or communities experiencing highest burden of health, social and economic impacts from COVID-19;
- Critical health care workers in remote and hard to access communities, e.g., sole practitioner; and
- Home and community care health care workers, including nurses and personal support workers caring for recipients of chronic homecare and seniors in congregate living facilities or providing hands-on care to COVID-19 patients in the community.
Officials say the shortened interval between shots – 21 days for those who got Pfizer and 28 days for those who received the Moderna vaccine – is because of an increased vaccine supply in the coming weeks.