MONTREAL

COVID-19 vaccine rollout begins today at 21 sites across Quebec

Published Monday, December 21, 2020 6:52AM EST Last Updated Monday, December 21, 2020 8:10PM EST

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MONTREAL -- People in priority groups are receiving their first round of the COVID-19 vaccine on Monday at 21 sites that have been set up across Quebec.

The operation begins on the heels of a weekend that saw Quebec break its single-day record of new COVID-19 cases twice, for a total of more than 4,000 in two days.

The vaccination sites are spread across 14 health regions throughout the province and about half of them are long-term care facilities.

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“The sites have been determined to maximize the vaccination of priority groups,'' the Office of the Minister of Health and Social Services noted in a press release last week.

According to health officials, the doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will allow for vaccinations to take place during the weeks of Dec. 21, 28 and Jan. 4.

Vaccinations at these sites are reserved only for priority populations, like people living in long-term care homes and health-care workers.

Those who are currently elligible for the first round of vaccinations have been contacted by establishments in the health network, the province said.

Depending on the number of doses it receives, the government said it plans to vaccinate up to 650,000 people by April 1.

The health department said on Sunday that 4,716 people have received the vaccine so far, a number that is on track with their weekly projection.

ROLL-OUT IS DIFFERENT IN DIFFERENT REGIONS

Because of logistical constraints around the vaccine, primarily the difficulty in transporting it between sites, the vaccine campaign is happening slightly differently in different places.

In Montérégie, for example, many health-care workers will be vaccinated before elderly people living in long-term care homes, who are officially the first in line, as the region announced last week.

“As this vaccine cannot be relocated, and since the Montérégie does not have CHSLDs offering the space available to accommodate a large number of people, we chose two sites outside our establishments that were used for influenza vaccination," said Dr. Julie Loslier, Montérégie's public health director, in a release Monday.

"We also wanted to avoid creating significant back-and-forth traffic in facilities that accommodate people vulnerable to COVID. It is for this reason that, initially, vaccination will be addressed only to workers in CHSLDs, intermediate resources and family resources who work with vulnerable people."

Residents of CHSLDs in the region will get the vaccine as soon as it's available in smaller shipments that can be used at the care homes, Loslier said.

Here’s the list of initial vaccine sites:

Montreal:

CHSLD Saint-Henri
CHG Maimonides
CHSLD Jeanne Le Ber – IUSM
CHSLD Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci
CHSLD de l'Hôpital Sainte-Anne

Laval:

Cité-de-la-Santé Hopsital

Lanaudière:

Centre hospitalier régional de Lanaudière (Saint-Charles-Borromée)

Laurentians:

Clinique désignée de dépistage (Boisbriand)

Montérégie:

Société d'agriculture de Saint-Hyacinthe, Pavillon la COOP
Clinique de vaccination Quartier Dix30

Eastern Townships: