Quebec asks military for help with vaccinations

Amid its highest-ever case counts and an avalanche of demand for booster shots, Quebec has called on the military to step in and help deliver vaccines. 

The province's public safety minister, Genevieve Guilbault, wrote on Twitter Tuesday that her office had asked for help ramping up the speed of the shots.

"Omicron threatens the hospital capacity of Quebec. We must speed up the vaccination of Quebecers," Guilbault said.

"I have formally requested the federal government for assistance from [the Canadian Armed Forces] and resources from other organizations able to assist with mass immunization."

Quebec has much more vaccine supply than it can currently deliver due to a lack of staff, after it scaled back and closed many of its vaccination clinics in the fall.

Now it has turned again to an online platform it used earlier in the pandemic, called Je Contribue, to ask retired health-care workers and other qualified people to step forward over the holidays and beyond to staff the clinics.

The pace of vaccinations has picked up very fast in recent days, with more than 73,000 people getting a dose on Monday -- already about 50 per cent higher than the averages last week.

But those numbers aren't nearly matching the demand, with a record 315,000 people booking new appointments on Monday, according to the province's health minister -- a provincial record.

Boosters are a key protection against the Omicron variant, which can easily infect someone who's double-vaccinated, though having two doses does still offer good protection against becoming seriously ill or hospitalized. According to studies, having a booster significantly further reduces a person's risk of infection and illness.

MILITARY ALREADY ON THE WAY TO NORTHERN QUEBEC

The federal government had already announced it would be sending military help to Quebec to contend with the current wave, though only to one region, and not for vaccination, according to the announcement.

"We have authorized a deployment of Canadian Armed Forces Rangers to assist the community of Bonne-Esperance, Quebec in response to COVID-19 outbreaks in the region," Canada's public safety minister, Bill Blair, wrote on Twitter on Monday.

"We stand ready to provide support to all provinces and territories during their time of need."

Bonne-Esperance is in northern Quebec, near the border with Labrador.