Record Staff
There are 12,000 doses of AstraZeneca available to people in the region in the coming weeks, Estrie Public Health Director Alain Poirier told reporters Wednesday.
Anyone 45 years and older can make an appointment through the portal3.clicsante.ca website, or visit the Sherbrooke Exhibition Centre (centre de foires) between 5 and 8 p.m. to receive a dose.
According to Poirier, 4,239 of the 5,200 available appointments were filled between April 17-19. The rollout is proving popular and moving quickly. While the Estrie region was lagging slightly at 27.4 per cent of the population vaccinated, the region is on track to catch up with the rest of the province, now over 28 per cent.
Poirier added that the issues last week with getting test results has been fixed, so people presenting any symptoms of COVID-19 should get tested immediately. Negative results are coming back 98 per cent of the time within 24 hrs, the public health director said.
The CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS has started administering a second dose of vaccine to CHSLDs in the region and should be finished by May 8. Next on the list will be private residences, Poirier said, but there was no timeline available yet.
Quebec reported 1,217 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the total number of people infected since the beginning of the pandemic to 340,397. There were also six new deaths reported, bringing the total to 10,838.
