CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — P.E.I.’s chief public health officer was smiling from ear to ear watching the first three Islanders receive the COVID-19 vaccination on Wednesday.
“I just couldn’t take the grin off my face,’’ Dr. Heather Morrison told the media who were invited to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown to witness the historic occasion. “I felt like doing a dance and putting my arms in the air.’’
Morrison said vaccines will continue arriving over the next several months, so that every single Islander who wants one can get one.
“It feels good,’’ Morrison said when asked what it felt like to be in the room where the three Islanders were being vaccinated. “There have been a lot of days that haven’t felt good in the last nine months. We are starting something that means the end is going to look different for us. It feels a bit surreal being here and I’m just so proud of everyone … from our office to the hospital to public health nursing.’’
The first vaccines are earmarked for health-care workers who are tasked with the care of the vulnerable and Islanders who are considered high risk.
Morrison is obviously hoping there is a lot of uptake on the vaccinations once it becomes available to everyone.
“As we said before, everyone who is vaccinated benefits all of us. I am just thrilled and excited and thankful so that we can continue this journey together until we get everyone protected so that we can have people coming home differently next summer; that we can see our loved ones in a different way.’’
Immediately after the media briefing ended at 1 p.m. on Wednesday the clinic to vaccinate more Islanders began.
Marion Dowling, chief of nursing on P.E.I., said they expected to vaccinate 200 Islanders on Wednesday with the clinic running until Saturday.
The Pfizer vaccines have to be kept at extreme cold temperatures. However, Morrison said the province is expected to be getting product from Moderna, which doesn’t have to be kept quite as cold, in early January. It’s around this time when residents in long-term care facilities will start getting vaccinated. Both vaccinations require two doses per person.
Dowling said they will be coming up with a plan as to how the rollout of vaccinations will go for the public, saying it will be similar to how the influenza vaccine is administered each year.
“We’ll make sure we’ll have what we need, that we get it out as soon as it arrives,’’ Dowling said. “We don’t want to wait.’’
