Waitlists grow for COVID-19 vaccine at Alberta pharmacies

Pfizer Canada faces high demand for COVID-19 vaccines during immunization season. Kathy Le reports.

Alberta’s new COVID-19 immunization program, which now requires most people to pay at least $100 for a vaccination, is facing more backlash as some private pharmacies run low on supply, leaving Albertans on waitlists.

At Lewis Estates Pharmacy in Edmonton, only two boxes of Pfizer doses remained this week.

Mauli Patel, the pharmacy manager, says there are days when four to five people come in asking for the vaccine, but she can’t help most of them.

“We have to turn them away,” she said.

In Calgary, the situation is similar. Randy Howden, a pharmacist at the Crowfoot Medicine Shoppe, says they have had no insight into when more doses may arrive.

“We have no transparency right now into the supply chain,” he said. “I have no idea when more vaccines will be coming or how much we’ll get.”

Unless one is considered a high-risk Albertan, such as health care workers, and exempt from paying for the COVID-19 vaccine, people can get their shot from a pharmacy or a government-run public health clinic.

The pharmacies are getting their supply from Pfizer Canada.

In a statement to CTV News, the company said, “Due to increased demand for COMIRNATY [BioNTech and Pfizer’s COVID-19 shot] during the current respiratory infection season, Pfizer Canada has implemented temporary allocation measures to help manage supply and ensure equitable distribution across pharmacies and wholesalers. COMIRNATY remains available, and pharmacies and wholesalers can continue ordering through their usual channels. Pfizer is committed to ensuring continued availability of COMIRNATY and supporting our stakeholders throughout this period.”

Pfizer Canada added that additional inventory is expected soon, and that it is advancing shipments to Canada to help meet demand.

Some Albertans say they’ve been lucky to get the vaccine from a pharmacy.

“The pharmacist told me, ‘You know, I have a limited number of covid shots, would you like to get one?’” said Andrea Jabouri. “I feel lucky that I was able to get one.”

While others, like Ray Belot, had a different experience.

“We were told we would have to wait to be put on a wait list,” he said.

Belot chose to go to a public health clinic but says the process was confusing and inefficient.

“We’ve had to go back and forth through ill-defined processes, dealing with staff at public health clinics who don’t know what’s going on,” he said.

In a statement to CTV News, the Ministry of Primary and Preventative Health Services wrote:

“As of October 31, more than 171,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered across Alberta through the provincial immunization program. Our program primarily administers Moderna for individuals 12 and older, and only Moderna for children aged 6 months to 12 years. There is no shortage of vaccines for our immunization program.”

It added that, “Alberta’s government does not play a role in private procurement or distribution; pharmacies must work directly with their suppliers to address any supply challenges.”