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Sahra Kaahiye, a respiratory therapist at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, says being the first Albertan to receive a COVID-19 vaccination felt like a “historic” moment.
“I felt honored and very grateful to be part of this entire experience. … When I woke up this morning I wasn’t expecting to be the first person in Alberta to get the injection,” she said Dec. 15.
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Health-care workers in the province’s two largest cities received the first vaccinations on Dec. 15, Premier Jason Kenney announced at the government’s COVID-19 update.
Everything you need to know about COVID-19 in Alberta on Thursday, Dec. 17
Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro announced plans Thursday to expand Alberta s rapid testing pilot project to long-term care facilities and rural hospitals, as the province says COVID has now killed more people in Alberta than influenza did over the last 10 years combined.
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Posted: Dec 17, 2020 9:07 AM MT | Last Updated: December 17, 2020
A patient is attached to a ventilator in the COVID-19 intensive care unit of a hospital. COVID-19 has now killed more people in Alberta than influenza did over the last 10 years combined, 760 people since March, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta s chief medical officer of health warned Wednesday.(Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press)
First COVID-19 vaccines administered in Calgary and Edmonton
Last Updated Dec 16, 2020 at 6:10 am MDT
CALGARY (660 NEWS) – A registered nurse and a respiratory therapist are the first two Albertans to receive the new Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
“I understand, the first to receive it, just received the vaccine moments ago was respiratory therapist, Sahra Kaahiya at Edmonton’s University of Alberta hospital and that Intensive Care Nurse Tanya Harvey at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary is also receiving the vaccine,” said Premier Jason Kenney during Tuesday’s provincial COVID-19 update.
Sahra Kaahiye, a respiratory therapist in #yeg, is the first Albertan to receive a #COVID19 vaccine. “The availability of a COVID-19 vaccine is great news,” she says. #ShotofHopepic.twitter.com/kup117DE4T
In 2009, it was discovered that players and families of the Calgary Flames National Hockey League team had somehow managed to jump ahead others to get doses of the scarce H1N1 vaccine.
In 2013, a provincial inquiry into health care queue-jumping found isolated instances of misbehaviour. It urged more action to reduce surgical wait times, noting that long waits for care were an incentive for insiders to butt ahead in line.
Alberta joins a growing list of provinces that have administered the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Ontario and Quebec started Monday.
About 3,900 doses arrived in Alberta on Monday night and are to be administered to high-risk front-line health workers in the coming days.