Canada's first COVID-19 vaccinations set to start as soon as Monday

[December 14, 2020]  By Allison Lampert

(Reuters) - Canada's first COVID-19 inoculations are set to begin as soon as Monday after some of the 30,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine arrived over the weekend, making Canada one of the few Western nations to start vaccinations.

The United States is also expected to begin doling out doses of the vaccine on Monday after the UK started inoculations last week. Canadian officials said last week the first shots would be given on Monday or Tuesday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced late on Sunday that a first batch had arrived.

The hard-hit province of Quebec is prioritizing residents and staff in two care homes, a provincial Health Department spokeswoman said. More than 80% of Canada's 13,350 pandemic deaths have been in such homes.

The vaccine "can arrive at anytime," said Lucie Tremblay, director of nursing for the health network that manages the Maimonides Geriatric Center in Montreal, where 15 died in a recent outbreak, according to government data.

Close to 300 of the facility's 327 residents should be vaccinated over the course of a week, depending on their health, Tremblay said.

Several Maimonides residents welcomed the vaccine.

"It's an act of love to get vaccinated," said resident Rabbi Ronnie Cahana, speaking by Zoom. Cahana, who is a quadriplegic, said he was overjoyed to hear the vaccine was coming. "I was dancing up and down the halls and I can't even walk."

His daughter Kitra Cahana, who recently returned to Montreal from her home in the United States so she could be present if her father fell ill from COVID-19, said she hopes the vaccine ends her family's constant worry for his safety.

"I think it's hard to imagine the level of fear and worry that surrounds these homes," she said. The first person to be vaccinated at the Centre d'hébergement Saint-Antoine in Quebec City, which has 229 residents, will be the 89-year-old Gisèle Lévesque, according to a statement.

Canada's federal health authorities on Friday called for provinces to impose more restrictions as forecasts project the current second wave of the coronavirus to spread rapidly.

The country has so far reported 454,852 cases, with 6,011 new ones recorded on Saturday.

Maimonides resident Beverly Spanier said she hoped being inoculated would restore some of the freedoms lost during the pandemic.

"I'd like to see grandchildren able to visit grandparents again," Spanier said.

(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Steve Scherer)

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