First drive-thru vaccine clinic opens for Albertans
Posted Jun 7, 2021 7:14 pm.
CALGARY — Most of, if not all of us, have had food from a drive-thru, but now you can sit in the comfort of your car and get your COVID-19 vaccination.
Alberta Health Services (AHS) has now opened the first drive-thru vaccine clinic in the province in northeast Calgary.
“(We are) Really excited about the drive-thru model, starting this week, with ramp up vaccination appointments. On Monday, it’s offering 350 appointments, allowing us to work through the system and understand what a drive-thru model looks like,” said Nick Thain, the senior operating officer for AHS.
The drive-thru vaccine facility is operational seven days a week, from 8:20 a.m. to 9:20 p.m. at the Deerfoot North Immunization Clinic.
Initially, the clinic will offer 350 appointments a day and then extend to 1,000 appointments a day.
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Those who got vaccinated on the first day had a bitter-sweet experience to share.
“It was kind of slow, it took about an hour but it was quick and efficient once I was inside,” said one woman who had just received her vaccine.
“They need to get their process quicker, so I waited for about an hour but it was great, I was in my own car, I could read and do whatever I wanted to,” said another.
Last weekend, more than 2,200 people got their first vaccine shot through the AHS “vaccine rodeo”, a pop-up clinic set up in northeast Calgary.
The purpose behind the walk-in clinic and now the drive-thru, is to make progress in the area devastated by high COVID-19 figures and low vaccination numbers.
“We are starting to see a good increase in vaccination numbers, specifically in the northeast, on average, with the rest of the City of Calgary, so that’s good news,” said Thain. “Those people are then going back into their community and sharing that this is a trusted way to get your vaccine.”
