Alberta rolled out its fall immunization campaign on Tuesday, but people hoping to get both a flu and COVID-19 vaccine at the same time might have to wait, with many pharmacies yet to receive a shipment of the new COVID shots.
“We were expecting to get flu and COVID shots together, so that was the plan initially, but just prior to the launch, we were told the vaccines would be a little delayed for COVID,” said Nisma Shaukat, the pharmacist at Copperfield Pharmasave.
In September, Alberta Health announced both vaccines would be available on Oct. 15.
While many pharmacies are unable to open bookings until delivery of the shots, others were forced to cancel bookings on Tuesday.
“It’s certainly inconvenient for people, especially when a lot of them heard through radio commercials and things like that that everything would be available together on the 15th,” Shaukat said.
“So, many are coming in together, expecting to do both and we have to tell them, …