Alberta Premier Jason Kenney outside of a Shoppers Drug Mart in Edmonton during Thursday's announcement (Government of Alberta)

By Justin Goulet

Alberta planning to expand number of pharmacies administering COVID vaccine

Mar 18, 2021 | 1:48 PM

EDMONTON, AB – Over the years, pharmacies have played a key role in administering flu shots to Albertans.

They’re now doing the same to help combat COVID-19.

Premier Jason Kenney announced in Edmonton Thursday that starting this week, the number of pharmacies delivering COVID vaccine has “more than doubled” and is slated to grow “further and further”.

“There are 259 pharmacies in 107 communities administering thousands of doses every day,” he said.

“The number of participating pharmacies has grown by 154 per cent since March 1. These pharmacies are rapidly increasing our ability to immunize people as quickly and as safely as possible.”

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Kenney said more than 66,000 doses will likely be delivered at Alberta pharmacies this week alone.

“We’re working to bring even more pharmacies on board,” he said.

“We expect more than 500 locations will be booking appointments across Alberta by early next month – early April.”

He urged every eligible Albertan that has a pharmacy offering a vaccine nearby to book an appointment as soon as they can.

“To every community that doesn’t yet have a local pharmacy offering this vaccine, please book through Alberta Health Services when eligible, but also know we will get vaccines to your pharmacy as quick as we can.”

Kenney said there are a thousand pharmacies waiting to offer the shot as soon as supply arrives.

“These pharmacies have the skills, the commitment and they are ready, but they just need the doses,” he stated.

“I also want to assure anyone without a pharmacy nearby offering COVID vaccines that are immunization program fully includes you too. We have a plan in place and we’re rolling the vaccines out to every corner of the province.”

He said Albertans do have reason to hold on to hope.

“We’ve been promised hundreds of thousands of doses over the next few months and that’s why we’ve made the bold promise to offer the vaccine to every adult in Alberta by the end of this June,” Kenney stated.

“In the meantime, we are so grateful that pharmacists here in Edmonton and across Alberta are doing so much. We know the interest and demand is there in cities and towns all over the province, but the speed of our vaccination rollout depends wholly on the amount of vaccines that we receive from the Government of Canada.”

The Premier added that the provincial government continues to be “let down” by the vaccine distribution from Ottawa.

“We’ve now learned that this week’s shipment of Moderna vaccines will actually be split over two separate weeks, effectively cutting shipments in half,” he said.

“This is entirely the responsibility of the federal government and they have not given us an explanation.”

Kenney said the more vaccines the province has, the faster they can be administered to Albertans. He’s implored the federal government to “keep its word” and deliver the doses they have confirmed.

“If, and this is a pretty big if, we get the vaccine supplies we’ve been promised, we’ll eventually be able to expand the immunization program across the province to include over 1,300 pharmacies.”

Additionally, the province announced earlier this week that community physicians will soon be able to administer COVID-19 vaccines. More details on that initiative here.