(Montreal) Many Quebecers are making an appointment to be vaccinated before the cold season, which is more conducive to the transmission of respiratory viruses.
“We have crossed the million mark [rendez-vous] for vaccination against influenza and COVID-19,” Health Minister Christian Dubé said in a tweet on X (formerly Twitter) on Saturday.
“We are observing a positive trend to act more in prevention, let’s continue in this direction by taking [rendez-vous] For [nous] get vaccinated if it has not already been done,” he stressed.
Later, the Ministry of Health and Social Services clarified Minister Dubé’s data to The Canadian Press. Thus, the total number of appointments stands at 1063,163 as of late Friday afternoon. Of this number, more than 600,000 had been taken for the COVID and influenza vaccine. More than 195,500 people made an appointment to receive just the COVID-19 vaccine and more than 227,000 chose to be vaccinated against influenza.
Since the start of the fall campaign, nearly 600,000 vaccines have been administered.
Citizens can make an appointment on the Clic Santé website. It is possible to receive the influenza vaccine and the COVID-19 vaccine during the same vaccination session.
These vaccines have been offered free of charge not only to the most vulnerable people, but also to the general population since October 10.
This is the National Director of Public Health, Dr Luc Boileau, who announced it at a press conference a few days earlier.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Lee National Director of Public Health, Dr.r Luc Boileau
He specified that the groups most vulnerable to developing complications from influenza or COVID-19 are people aged over 60, pregnant women, immunosuppressed people, people with chronic illnesses and people living under the same roof or natural caregivers of the mentioned groups, in addition to health workers.
People aged 6 months and over who wish to do so, but who are not part of the targeted groups, will also be able to receive a dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
The vaccine against pneumococcal infections is also offered to certain groups of the population.
The Quebec government has planned some 150 points of service for vaccination, but it did not plan to recreate massive sites as was done at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal at the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also be possible to obtain both vaccines in pharmacies.
The launch of this campaign coincides with the arrival of new vaccines developed to counter the multiple variants of COVID-19, including the XBB.1.5 sub-variant which is making strong progress. The latest Moderna vaccine is among these and Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comirnaty, which has obtained the green light from Health Canada, must also be made available.
The vaccination campaign will be entirely financed from the envelope of 270 million set aside in the last budget of the Quebec government specifically to carry out vaccination campaigns.