Maritime provinces prepare to start administering 2nd COVID-19 booster shots
New Brunswick pharmacies will soon be administering second COVID-19 booster doses for those who are 50 and older in the province, following updated guidelines recently released by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI).
“Demand has been high,” says Fredericton pharmacist Alistair Bursey. “So, we’re definitely going to expand where maybe we’ve been doing two or three patients per day in our pharmacy – I think we’re going to probably end up seeing 30, 40, or 50 people coming in each clinic daily.”
The fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine will become available for the specified age group on Tuesday.
Meantime, Nova Scotia also announced it too will soon be offering second booster shots to long-term care residents and residents aged 70 and older.
Dr. Zahid Butt, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ont., says it’s especially important for the elderly population to get the fourth dose at this point in time.
“There is waning immunity among the elderly because they were the first ones that got all of their doses, plus the booster dose,” says Butt. “This is a support to boost their immunity, so that’s why you have this fourth booster dose among this population.”
Also starting this week in New Brunswick, high-risk COVID-19 patients will be able to contact their primary care physician for a prescription of the anti-viral treatment Paxlovid.
Bursey says they’re seeing a big increase in the number of prescriptions they’re filling at his Fredericton pharmacy.
“I think we dispensed maybe three or four in the first month or so, and in one week, we dispensed about 15 at our pharmacy, and that’s good because it’s a great treatment and it’s another tool in our arsenal," says Bursey.
The province says Paxlovid will be available at no cost, and while it can be taken at home, it has to be taken within five days of symptoms starting to make it as effective as possible.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.