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Canada gives first doses of COVID-19 vaccine

Five front-line workers in Ontario are among the first Canadians to receive Pfizer’s vaccine
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Tamara Dus (left), director of University Health Netwok Safety Services, administers the first Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Ontario to personal support worker Anita Quidangen at a hospital in Toronto on Monday, Dec. 14, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

Canada has administered its first doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

Five front-line workers in Ontario are among the first Canadians to receive the vaccine at one of Toronto’s hospitals.

Three personal support workers, a registered nurse, and a registered practical nurse who work at the Rekai Centre nursing home are among the first to receive it.

Ontario received 6,000 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine Sunday night and plans to give them to about 2,500 health-care workers.

Residents of two long-term care homes Quebec will be the first to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in that province.

In B.C., provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix have said that 4,000 doses of frozen Pfizer vaccine will be arriving at two sites in Fraser and Vancouver Coastal Health, packed in dry ice, this week.

Health care workers in long-term care and the acute wards dealing with sick COVID-19 patients are first priority for the vaccine, followed by long-term care residents, seniors over 80 years old in the community and on First Nation reserves, as well as those at risk because of chronic conditions.

“We’re going to take our limited doses in the first few weeks to months of this program and try to protect as many people as possible,” Henry said during a news conference earlier in December.

Alberta is expected to release its vaccine rollout plan later this afternoon.

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ashley.wadhwani@bpdigital.ca

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