Felice Lacovelli looks after his 71-year-old wife, who has Parkinson’s, day and night. He hardly ever leaves his residence. “Except to go to the fruit store or the Canadian Tire!” he says. The 71-year-old former construction contractor and trucker underwent a kidney transplant a decade ago. He takes about thirty pills a day. “My doctor called me and said, ‘Hurry up and get your fourth dose.’ »
Felice Lacovelli received it on Monday, seated in his dining room. His wife, bedridden, was vaccinated in her hospital bed, installed next to his in their bedroom. Since last week, nurses from the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal have been going to homes to offer second booster doses to vulnerable users (immunocompromised people, for example) or unable to go out. from their house.
“The phone rings a lot. I have people who constantly call back and tell me ‘I want my fourth dose,’” says Mélissa Lampron, a nurse with the CLSC de Lasalle mobile vaccination team who has worked in home care for 18 years.
On this Monday morning, she and her colleague take the doses needed for the day from vials of vaccine. They have no time to waste. The COVID-19 vaccine can be kept for six hours in a cooler at a temperature between two and seven degrees Celsius. “We prepare the exact number of syringes,” says Mélissa Lampron.
Users rarely fail him. “We are very well received,” she adds.
The duty could witness it. “Sit down, sit down! says Felice Lacovelli to his visitors as soon as they arrive. “I’m going to make some coffee. Do you want espresso? Mélissa Lampron kindly reminds him that the mask cannot be removed due to COVID-19. The white-haired, glib-haired man shrugs his shoulders. He says he is not afraid of COVID, but wants to avoid it. And above all to save his wife – with whom he has been married for 45 years – from this disease.
“Same issue” for the fourth dose
The administration campaign for the fourth dose began at the end of March in CHSLDs in Quebec. Since April 11, the second booster dose has been offered to people aged 60 and over. According to the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS), approximately one-third of people in this age category have received it so far. Among those aged 80 to 84, 55% have already obtained it or have made an appointment. This percentage is 47% among those aged 85 and over, indicates the MSSS (see box).
However, the Comité sur l’immunisation du Québec recommends that people aged 80 and over living in the community as well as residents of living environments, such as CHSLDs and private seniors’ residences, take advantage of the second dose without delay. reminder.
According to Daniel Paré, deputy minister at the MSSS and responsible for vaccination, the fourth dose campaign is facing the “same issue” as that of the third, which is making little progress. ” There are many [personnes âgées] who made the disease in the fifth and sixth waves, he explained during the study of the appropriations in parliamentary committee, Thursday. And that’s what makes it possible for him to be late in vaccination. »
Advertisements will be broadcast soon to remind Quebecers that they can receive a third dose or a fourth dose three months after an infection with the coronavirus, added the Minister of Health and Social Services, Christian Dubé, in parliamentary committee.
Johanne Ladouceur escaped COVID-19. She contacted Mélissa Lampron, who has already given her home care, to obtain her fourth dose. Coincidentally, it was the same nurse who administered the vaccine to her at home on Monday, after asking her a series of questions.
The 69-year-old Montrealer does not flinch during the injection. In addition to lung problems, she suffers from osteoarthritis. Her leg pain is so severe that it is now impossible for her to go down and up the ten internal steps leading to her apartment. To feel the breeze from the wind and the warmth of the sun, she opens her patio door, which overlooks a schoolyard.
“I always stay at home,” says Johanne Ladouceur, sitting at her kitchen table in front of a laptop computer with which she plays games. My husband does the shopping. »
Her husband does everything to avoid COVID-19 when he goes to the grocery store or to the store. “Even if they say they’re taking the mask off, my husband is going to keep it on because he says he’s not taking any risks,” emphasizes Johanne Ladouceur. He doesn’t want to give me COVID. Johanne Ladouceur says she is not afraid of the disease, but the fourth dose reassures her. And she won’t hesitate to reach out a fifth time, if necessary.