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Alberta Health Minister slams feds over COVID-19 vaccine procurement

EDMONTON, AB. – Tyler Shandro is calling on the federal Liberal government to “come clean” and fix Canada’s vaccine shipments.

Tyler Shandro released a scathing statement Thursday (Jan. 28) saying the province has now been told for a third time this month that our vaccine allocation will be slashed — yet again.

He says Alberta didn’t receive any doses this week, but 468,000 vaccines that were promised to the province were supposed to arrive by the end of March.

The provincial government was notified just Thursday morning, according to Shandro that Alberta will actually receive 63,000 fewer vaccines in the first quarter of 2021.

He calls this a “grim situation that seems to be getting worse every week” and says “the federal government is failing Canadians.”

Tyler Shandro Statement:

“For the third time this month, the federal government has notified us through bureaucratic channels that Alberta’s Pfizer vaccine allocation will be slashed yet again.

At first, we were told that Alberta’s share of vaccines would be reduced between 20 and 80 per cent over four weeks.

Shortly after that, we found out that Alberta would actually receive no vaccines at all in the last week of January. At the same time, the federal government reassured us that we would receive the full 468,000 doses that Alberta had been promised by the end of March. The temporary reductions were to be made up for in the remainder of the first quarter.

This morning, we’ve been told that Alberta will receive 63,000 fewer vaccines in the first quarter of this year. This means 63,000 more Albertans will not receive this life-saving vaccine.

The federal government is failing Canadians. This is a grim situation that seems to be getting worse every week. We know that life for Canadians will not begin returning to something resembling normal until our most vulnerable are immunized. Prime Minister Trudeau, Health Minister Hajdu, and Public Services and Procurement Minister Anand need to come clean with Canadians and fix this now. Anything less is unacceptable.”

As of Jan. 27, a total of 102,524 doses of vaccine had been administered in Alberta, including second doses for more than 12,000 people.

In Alberta, there were 461 new cases out of about 12,300 tests for a provincial positivity rate of 3.9 percent.

There are 591 people in hospital, 112 of them in the ICU.

Another seven deaths were reported to Alberta Health Services over the past day.

Here in the South Zone, there were 32 new cases reported, of those, 20 of them were in Lethbridge.

The number of active COVID cases in Lethbridge remains at 118.

Click here for up to date local, national, and international COVID-19 case data.

Sam Borsato
Sam Borsato
I started my radio career in 2015, shortly after graduating from Lethbridge College. I have a very strong passion for local news. Proudly born in 1994, I grew up most of my life in Sylvan Lake, AB and I've lived in the Lethbridge since 2012. I'm a below average golfer on a good day, I take as many hiking trips to Waterton as possible in the summer and I love my two cats, Outlaw and Jynx, and my dog, Maverick, more than most people I know. I look forward to providing accurate, timely news coverage in southern Alberta for plenty of years to come!
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