LAC LA BICHE - Lac La Biche County residents have the option of which location to get their COVID-19 vaccine jab, but they are limited to availability of supply and product, both of which are determined by provincial distribution.
Only one pharmacy in the municipality, IDA Crescent Drugs, has received the Moderna vaccine. Three other local pharmacies have been supplied with various quantities of AstraZeneca from the province. Cedar Pharmacy will soon be the first location in Lac La Biche to offer the Pfizer vaccine, slated to arrive the week starting May 3. Cedar had previously issued AstraZeneca injections through the last week of April.
By the time Cedar Pharmacy receives their first 150 doses of the Pfizer vaccine the dispensary will have already administered all 100 doses of AstraZeneca that they have received from the province. Getting all 100 doses off of shelves and into arms in five days, says the pharmacy’s owner.
Cedar Pharmacy currently has a waiting list of approximately 100 people hoping to receive their first jab of the two-Pfizer vaccine.
AstraZeneca available
Rapid administering of doses has not been the same experience for the Loblaws pharmacy located in Lac La Biche’s Briton's Your Independent Grocer where 150 of the 200 AstraZeneca dozes received from the province over the week are still available.
They are currently booking appointments available at that location for all residents eligible under widening government regulations.
The slow uptake in some places is no surprise to Colin Stratichuk, pharmacist and owner of Lac La Biche's Value Drug Mart. His pharmacy has struggled to combat patient hesitancy specifically with the administering of AstraZeneca, having to mitigate what he sees as unwarranted fears over potential risk of blood clots.
Stratichuk correlates the reporting on blood clots by media and social media chatter as the biggest deterrent for individuals to postpone or even forgo inoculation in hopes to receive another brand of vaccine.
“You have to put the risk into perspective,” he says. “From the information out there, we know that there is a greater risk of forming a blood clot from [contracting] COVID than you have from getting the vaccine.”
Vaccine shopping
Stratichuk says that his pharmacy has struggled to book and dispense their allotment of AstraZeneca vaccines because some individuals within the age group of 50-70 were “vaccine shopping” and unwilling to accept most readily available to them.
“The right thing to do if that age group is not going to have proper uptake on the vaccine is to certainly go to somebody else. The 40 to 55 age group was taking it up much quicker,” Stratichuk added.
“At some point you have got to get the vaccines in the arms of whoever will take it," he said.
Highlighting the pharmacist's "vaccine shopping" observation is the current waiting list for the Moderna vaccine coming to IDA.
Waiting for Moderna
Being the only pharmacy in the area to offer Moderna, IDA Crescent Drugs pharmacy reached a waiting list that peaked at 850 people, all hoping to receive their first dose of the vaccine. But the store's owner Zicki Eludin says effective delivery of the in-demand vaccine is not happening.
Crescent has only received 400 doses over the past two months, despite being to told by provincial health officials at the start of the rural rollout in March to expect up to 200 doses a week. Those shipments never arrived, causing Eludin to redirect vulnerable residents to other pharmacies and clinics.
“We're just not receiving any vaccine from [the province],” Eludin says. “The priority is urban areas, as always, the discrepancy between healthcare in Canada is not between rich and poor it’s urban and rural. This vaccine rollout has proven that again.”
Eludin says his pharmacy has the capacity to deliver close to 100 shots per day and has already finished delivering all Moderna doses received to date.
Crescent pharmacy anticipates the arrival of 100 Moderna doses later next week.
“We are still prioritizing those residents eligible in phase 2A and 2B,” Eludin adds. The County still has a large portion of vulnerable residents unvaccinated and a long list of people waiting for the vaccine.
As of Wednesday AHS reported 51 active cases of Covid-19 in Lac La Biche County and 20,938 active cases across the province. A total of 643 people were in hospital with the illness, 143 of them in intensive care.
Bookings for vaccines must be made in advance through the individual drug stores, as all Lac La Biche County pharmacies do not allow for walk-ins.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Related Links:
