A senior receives their COVID-19 vaccination at the Palais de Congress site as Quebec begins mass vaccinations based on age across the province, Monday, March 1, 2021 in Montreal. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz)
Johanu Botha, right, co-lead of Manitoba’s Vaccine committee, and Dr. Joss Reimer, medical lead of the committee, speak about COVID-19 vaccination initiatives and answer media questions during a COVID-19 livestreamed news conference at the Manitoba legislature in Winnipeg on Wednesday, March 17, 2020. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods)
WINNIPEG — Manitoba has launched an online booking system for eligible people to book a COVID-19 vaccine.
The system went live on Wednesday and allows eligible Manitobans to make a booking to receive an inoculation at any of the province’s five supersites in Winnipeg, Brandon, Selkirk, Thompson and Morden.
To register to make a booking, an email address and Manitoba health card number are required. Appointments can also still be booked by phone at 1-844-626-8222 (1-844-MAN-VACC) from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
The province has expanded eligibility criteria again to include those 73-years-old and up, as well as First Nations people 53-years-old and up.
“We’ve been really fortunate to be able to keep dropping the age,” said Dr. Joss Reimer, medical lead of the province’s vaccine committee.
“I anticipate that probably early next week, we’ll be talking about people who are 65-plus.”
People in younger age groups can already get vaccinated if they are health-care workers, are employed in congregate settings such as homeless shelters and retirement homes, or if they have underlying health conditions.
There are also two sets of priority lists for people who might not qualify under the age restrictions but can still receive a vaccine at a pharmacy or doctor’s office based on underlying medical conditions.
Manitoba has administered 113,275 doses of vaccine to date, including 76,612 first doses and 36,663 second doses. That works out to be about more than six percent of the entire Manitoba population. A new campaign rolled out on Wednesday called #ProtectMB is hoping to increase engagement surrounding the vaccine and encourage more Manitobans to get the shot. ProtectMB.ca includes information surrounding the vaccine rollout and a signup form to notify you when it’s your turn to roll up your sleeve.
The maximum daily vaccine capacity is currently at 18,973, with the province aiming to reach 20,000 doses per day by April.
To date, a total of 179,720 vaccine doses from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca/Covishield have been delivered to Manitoba. Pfizer expects to deliver another 14,040 doses to the province by the end of this week.
