By Janice Harvey, RPh, CDE
Invitations to book flu and COVID shots will be sent out in stages starting on October 4. Here’s when you can expect to receive your invitation:
- Priority groups, starting October 4: immunocompromised individuals and healthcare workers
- Staggered groups by age, starting October 6: starting with age 65+, followed by age 6 months to 4 years, and then age 5 to 17 years
- Starting approximately October 16: All adults age 18 to 64
An online public booking link will be established after the above priority groups have received their invites. We will post this link as soon as it is available. In the meantime, if you do not receive an invitation and feel that you might have been missed, please call BC’s Get Vaccinated program at 1-833-838-2323 for assistance with booking your appointment.
We have opened up appointments for Tuesday, October 10 and Wednesday, October 11. When booking your appointment, please search for “Medicine Shoppe #414”. If you don’t see any appointments available with us for these two dates, be sure to check back. We will open additional appointments based on demand and vaccine availability.
About the Flu & COVID Vaccines
For information about specific flu vaccines and which one(s) are most appropriate for you, please read our previous article at https://medicineshoppecourtenay.ca/understanding-the-2023-24-flu-vaccine-options/.
On September 28, Health Canada approved Pfizer’s updated COVID-19 vaccine that targets the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant, as well as other subvariants. Moderna’s vaccine was approved on September 12. We have received a limited supply of the Moderna vaccine initially (only 200 shots), which will likely last us only 3 or 4 days. After that, we will be waiting for an allotment of the Pfizer vaccine, which we do not expect to arrive in the pharmacy until sometime October 16 to 27. As a result, please note that initially, you may only be able to get a flu shot, but that you should be able to schedule a COVID shot about two weeks later.