Boosting the boosters: Pharmacies across Canada host special clinics for COVID-19 vaccines

As the omicron variant continues to strike across Canada, pharmacists are providing vaccination clinics outside of pharmacy hours and sometimes outside of their pharmacy locations to ensure Canadians have access to their first, second or third dose of COVID-19 vaccine. In Newfoundland, City Pharmacy in Corner Brook hosted special evening and weekend vaccine clinics which booked up quickly. Pharmacists employed by Central Health hosted a special vaccination clinic staffed only by clinical pharmacists. In New Brunswick, booster doses became available for everyone over the age of 18 on January 10. Jake Reid, executive director of the New Brunswick Pharmacists’ Association told radio 91.9 The Bend in Moncton that the phones in pharmacies have been ringing off the hook ever since. Some pharmacists are even vaccinating people in their cars, like Greg MacFarlane, a pharmacist in Fredericton and Nackawic. Quebec pharmacists rang in the new year knowing that neighbourhood pharmacists had given more than 1.5 million vaccine doses in 2021, according to l’Association québécoise des pharmaciens propriétaires (AQPP). The number is now 1.8 million since COVID-19 vaccination campaign began. One Montreal pharmacist hosted a special vaccination clinic for immunocompromised patients. Read: Pharmacist creates safe space for immunocompromised patients Many Ontario pharmacies offered clinics off-site, including Loyalist pharmacy in Amherstview, Ont., which held a large COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Royal Kingston Curling Club in nearby Kingston in early January. Pharmacist-owner Siva Sivapalan of Beamsville organized a large clinic at the Fleming Centre, which saw 400 people vaccinated against COVID-19. Sivapalan organized the event on January 15 with help from staff from the town of Lincoln, Ont. Andrew Hanna, a pharmacist in Orléans, Ont., hosted an overnight walk-in booster dose clinic on January 7 at his Pharmasave pharmacy. Hanna told CTV News that they hoped to deliver 1,000 doses overnight. Staff and students at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto is again providing COVID-19 vaccines to the community. As well as preparing vaccines for the large clinics at the university’s McCaul Street clinic, they recently supported a one-day clinic at the Zanzibar Tavern, a strip club on Yonge Street. The pharmacy team prepared the vaccines and sent the doses to the Zanzibar using a special courier service. “The University Health Network team wanted to use our pharmacy team as a way to try this model – to see if it could be an efficient and effective way to get doses mass produced and safely transported to another nearby site,” said Linda Dresser, an assistant professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy in a university press release. “We were there in the background, as pharmacy often is – the cog that makes the magic happen out front.” The popularity of the clinic at the Zanzibar meant the pharmacy team ended up preparing 1,100 doses for the January 3 event. Pharmacies in the Prairies continue to deliver first, second and booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines. The Pharmacy Association of Saskatchewan asked the public to be patient with pharmacies as the booster dose became widely available. Read: How are different provinces faring with Omicron? “We do ask people to be patient. Pharmacists provide other services, not just vaccinations, and they will get through the list and they’re eager to make sure that we protect residents,” the association's CEO Michael Fougere told CTV News. In British Columbia, pharmacies will be providing the majority of booster doses, playing a bigger role in COVID-19 vaccination than previously in the pandemic. More than 700 pharmacies are expected to be involved in the vaccination campaign, a December 14, 2021 B.C. government news release states. Read: COVID-19 diagnosis leads to decline in mobility and functioning in older adults

Boosting the boosters: Pharmacies across Canada host special clinics for COVID-19 vaccines

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