Some Alberta pharmacies were unable to receive shipments of COVID-19 vaccines in time for the start of the fall immunization campaign on Tuesday, further disrupting the program’s rollout.
The Alberta government recently announced that COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations will begin on October 15th.
As reported by CBC News, local clinics are not receiving vaccines because there is no distributor to supply them.
And now some pharmacies say they will have to wait longer than expected for their first shipments.
“If there’s anything the pandemic has taught us, it’s that you should wait until it’s in the fridge to really believe it,” said Matthew Giroux, pharmacy manager at Cambrian Pharmacy in Calgary. spoke.
He expected to have the first coronavirus vaccines in-house and refrigerated by now.
He already has his flu shot, but he can’t even order a COVID-19 shot until next week.
“For the first week, we’ll just have to get the flu shot and then we’ll have to reschedule everyone’s second dose,” he said.
It’s a similar story at Lukes Drug Mart’s Bridgeland store.
“We don’t have any. We were supposed to have it so we could start Tuesday with the flu shots,” said pharmacy manager David Brewerton.
Brewerton said different pharmacies are allowed to place orders on different days, and he expects to be able to submit orders as early as Tuesday and have vaccines arriving by Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Giroud’s order date is Thursday. As such, he doesn’t expect to receive his first COVID-19 vaccination until Friday.
Big chains like London Drugs appear to be doing well.
“We were able to receive both vaccines,” said Chris Chu, vice president of pharmacy and medical affairs at London Drugs.
Chiew said online bookings are being accepted and all 23 of the company’s locations in Alberta will be ready to begin administering both doses of the vaccine on Tuesday.
“Each store is currently preparing for actual sales.”
He said staff at stores in Calgary and Edmonton have started receiving packages or are already placing packages.
Loblaws, which owns Shoppers Drug Mart, also said it doesn’t expect any problems starting the vaccination campaign on time.
The provincial government told CBC News it has ordered 1.9 million doses of the latest COVID-19 vaccine.
To date, 840,440 doses have been delivered to pharmacy wholesalers.
But a spokesperson acknowledged there were delays.
In a statement, the Ministry of Health said, “Nationwide there are delays in the arrival of new coronavirus vaccines from manufacturers.”
“Alberta Health is prioritizing the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to outreach immunization providers in continuing care settings.”
The state announced three pharmacy wholesale distributors will prepare COVID-19 deliveries for the start of the vaccination campaign on October 15th.
However, shipping from McKesson, one of our major distributors, takes longer.
The distributor expects to have the first shipments to pharmacies by the end of this week (October 18), the spokesperson said, adding that there have been no delays in deliveries of the flu vaccine.
CBC News reached out to McKesson for comment, but did not receive a response by press time.
The state government says supplies of COVID-19 vaccines typically arrive in phases over six weeks.
