By Chris Brown

Alberta expanding Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine

Alberta lowers minimum age for AstraZeneca vaccine to 40 from 55, hours after Ontario

Apr 19, 2021 | 8:21 AM

Premier Jason Kenney says the province will start offering the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Albertans born in 1981 and earlier starting on Tuesday.

He tweeted the change on Sunday night, hours after Ontario made a similar announcement.

The AstraZeneca vaccine had previously only been available to those born in 1966 and earlier.

This change will make nearly 600,000 more Albertans eligible to be vaccinated.

The government says based on growing scientific knowledge about it, the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the risks of the rare adverse events, such as blood clots, that have been reported.

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Newly eligible Albertans can book appointments at any of the 19 area pharmacies that were already administering the vaccine to previously eligible people.

The announcement comes amid mounting pressure to expand eligibility for the shot as the third wave of COVID-19 devastates parts of Canada.

Alberta currently has the highest rate of active COVID-19 cases in the country.

-with files from The Canadian Press