MONTREAL -- Cyclists in the greater Montreal area are invited to take advantage of the upcoming sunny weekend to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in the paddocks of the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, on Ile Notre-Dame, in Montreal.
The vaccination clinic, which opened on Saturday morning, takes place in a "pit stop" format: people sit in the same place for the evaluation, the injection and the 15 minutes of rest.
The whole operation is taking place amid a festive atmosphere with music, the presentation of old Formula 1 races and surrounded by race cars.
"We want this to be a fun time. It is the day after the start of the deconfinement. It's a bit of a celebration, too," said South Central Montreal CIUSS director of vaccination Marie-Eve Brunelle.
The event is reserved for cyclists on Saturday and Sunday, with or without an appointment, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is for first doses only, and health-care professionals will be administering Pfizer BioNTech vaccines.
The facility can vaccinate about a thousand cyclists on Saturday, according to Brunelle.
"We have 500 scheduled appointments and 500 walk-ins. Same thing for tomorrow. Throughout the day, we'll be broadcasting the number of walk-ins we have left. We have a possibility to increase if the response is really there," she explained.
For the next two weekends, the clinic at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve will be in drive-through mode and by appointment only. Approximately 1,000 doses may also be administered on each of the weekends.
Up to 20 corridors are installed in the garage complex, which can accommodate two cars or five bikes at a time, according to the organizers of this vaccination operation.
The initiative is the result of a collaboration between the CIUSS du Centre-Sud-de-l'Île-de-Montreal, the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Canada and the Societe du parc Jean-Drapeau.
-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 29, 2021.
