The queues having been replaced by empty chairs in the vaccination centers of Quebec, the Canadian army is packing up. The deployment of soldiers, urgently requested by the government of François Legault in December, is no longer necessary. The mission is therefore being completed.
Since the beginning of January, 250 members of the Canadian Armed Forces have lent a hand in 15 vaccination centers in Quebec. The ridership at the beginning of the year has however greatly decreased.
Result “the disengagement of the CAF from the vaccination centers is in progress”, indicated a spokesperson for the National Defense to the Dutyby email.
There are no more than twenty in the field, in five vaccination centers in the Montreal and Mauricie regions. “The mission is completed in ten other vaccination centers,” reports Lieutenant Daniel Alejandro Pineda Revelo.
The initial mission, aimed at supporting vaccination efforts in Quebec, was to last 30 days. The Quebec government did not ask to extend it.
“Currently, Quebec’s vaccination capacity is far greater than demand,” the province’s Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) acknowledged. “As a result, the support of the Canadian Armed Forces in certain vaccination centers is no longer necessary. »
A short call for help
The Quebec government had requested emergency aid from the Canadian army and the Red Cross on December 20, as its personnel were overwhelmed in the province’s vaccination centers and testing centers. Canadian soldiers were deployed to provide logistical support for vaccination — reception and orientation of citizens, disinfection of surfaces.
However, if the vaccination centers were indeed crowded at the start of the year, this is no longer the case at all a month later.
In mid-January, health workers were vaccinating about 115,000 people a day — a high since the summer of 2021. The vaccination rate has since plummeted. And for the day on Wednesday, less than 35,000 doses of vaccine were administered, according to data from the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ). Of these, 1486 were first doses, 8277 second doses and 24,778 booster doses.
The MSSS nevertheless assures that “access to the vaccine remains a priority” and that the ministry “continues its efforts to offer the vaccine […] to as many Quebecers as possible.
The army has deployed soldiers throughout its mission on the North Shore, in Centre-du-Québec, in Chaudière-Appalaches, in Estrie, as well as in Mauricie and Montreal, where they are still present today. .
Canadian soldiers notably lent a hand at the Olympic Stadium and at the Palais des Congrès in the city. Gold, Radio Canada revealed Thursday that at the beginning of the week, barely about 500 people were being vaccinated per day in these two massive vaccination centers, which had been set up to be able to administer 3,000 daily doses.
The army will continue its disengagement until February 15.