OTTAWA -- Canada’s pharmacies say they’re primed and ready to start administering COVID-19 vaccines at their facilities across the country, as government officials prepare for the next phase of vaccine rollout.
Shoppers Drug Mart President Jeff Leger says he’s informed all levels of government that once given the green light, the company’s more than 1,300 locations and an additional 500 Loblaw pharmacies, would need just 48 to 72 hours to get their sites prepped for mass inoculations.
"Our stores have already been thinking about it, we’ve got the processes in place. We can move very quickly and we can move large volumes of people through our network," Leger said in a phone interview with CTVNews.ca on Tuesday.
He said a smooth rollout is contingent on provinces using a framework similar to that used during flu season.
"As long as we’re adhering to the same principles that we’ve done for flu vaccination...we’re good to go," said Leger. "At the height of flu season we did as many as half a million in one week, we think we could do much more than that – really the constraint was supply."
He added that this network of pharmacies can manage the finicky ultra-cold storage requirements of the Pfizer vaccine. Leger says he's also confident the company’s large roster of pharmacists will be able to draw the now-approved sixth dose from vaccine vials using low dead space syringes – though he said they’re still waiting on the shipments of those syringes from provincial governments.
"The supply of those syringes, our understanding [is that] they’ll be coming from the federal supplies and provincial supplies so as long as the supply of those low dead space syringes hold up then there shouldn’t be a problem for that," he said.
This comes as Health Canada announced its highly-anticipated approval of AstraZeneca’s vaccine candidate on Friday, now the third vaccine given a formal stamp of approval in Canada. The federal government has secured 20 million doses of this vaccine, set to arrive between April and September, plus an additional 1.9 million doses before the end of June from the global vaccine sharing network COVAX.
The federal government also maintains the country is still on track to meet is six million dose target of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
While the details of how and when pharmacies will be incorporated into vaccine rollout plans differ by province, Joelle Walker, vice-president of public affairs at the Canadian Pharmacists Association, said all have signaled use of the facilities at some point to reach the broader public.
"Pharmacies are very conveniently located. Most Canadians live within five kilometres of a pharmacy which makes them very accessible to people who can’t travel to major centres to get vaccinated," she said during a phone interview with CTVNews.ca on Friday. "Most Canadians see their pharmacists more than any other provider and so it just makes them an obvious choice."
Some provinces, including Alberta, have already laid out plans detailing how . Forty-one Shoppers Drug Mart stores and Real Canadian Superstore locations in Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer will be offering in-store shots to Albertans 75 and older as early as next week.
"This is a step that just makes sense. As anyone who has gotten a flu shot knows, pharmacists have a lot of experience in delivering vaccines. They have played an important role in our seasonal flu program for many, many years and they have the skills, they have the experience and they have the infrastructure in place to be an important part of our immunization program," said Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro on Wednesday.
Many other provinces list pharmacies as designated vaccination sites in phase two, which for most is expected to begin in April.
Walker said she’s encouraged the federal government to work more closely with provinces to establish some level of national consistency on pharmacy involvement.
"It [would] make it easier for pharmacists to communicate that information to patients. Many people are saying ‘oh you know, in Alberta it’s over 75’ and not necessarily knowing that will be different in other provinces," said Walker.
"That kind of consistency of information would really help bring that confidence to Canadians that there’s a process in place."
As for tracking the second dose of any of the three approved vaccines, Walker said pharmacies are particularly well-equipped with this function as they remind Canadians daily to refill their prescriptions.
"The refill system in pharmacies is designed to do exactly that, to make sure their patients come back when they’re supposed to to pick up their refills."
