Many Quebecers make 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 have reached the milestone of one million appointments for vaccination against flu and COVID-19. We are observing a positive trend to act more in prevention, let’s continue in this direction by making an appointment to be vaccinated if you have not already done so. https://t.co/BbpHlVcLSb
— Christian Dubé (@cdube_sante) October 21, 2023
“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.
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 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.
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.