The first person in Laval to be inoculated against COVID-19 is a health care worker.
On Dec. 23, Sylvie Schaffro was the first of an initial 250 health care workers in Laval who are slated to receive the first of two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
Health authorities in Laval decided to prioritize health workers caring for people at risk, rather than elderly residents at retirement homes, for logistical reasons having to do with the number of doses now available and the number of recipients in a single location who would receive it.
The Laval region has been allotted fewer than 3,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine for now. At two doses per recipient, that means only 1,500 people can be immunized for the time being.
But since the Pfizer vaccine has to be kept in extraordinarily cold storage, making it more complicated to administer, and for other logistical considerations, the shots are being given at a special inoculation clinic for health workers set up at Cité de la Santé.
The impending arrival of the Moderna vaccine, after it was approved by Health Canada on Dec. 23, is expected to speed up the vaccination process, since the Moderna shot is easier to store and to transport from location to location.
