{"id":105661,"date":"2022-07-13T14:54:58","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T18:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=105661"},"modified":"2022-07-13T16:45:43","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T20:45:43","slug":"second-booster-eligibility-opens-up-in-nb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/second-booster-eligibility-opens-up-in-nb\/","title":{"rendered":"Second booster eligibility opens up in New Brunswick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone 18 and over can now get a second booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine in New Brunswick. The provincial government announced the expanded eligibility in a release Tuesday afternoon<\/a>, saying the decision was based on current trends in the province that show \u201cincreasing risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chief Medical Officer of Health Jennifer Russell says there are signs, \u201cNew Brunswick is at the start of a period of heightened activity of COVID-19, driven by Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s announcement immediately set phones ringing off the hook at the Corner Drug Store in Sackville, one of the local pharmacies that offers COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n

Pharmacist Charles Beaver says the pharmacy will likely need to expand operations to accommodate the demand, and to that end will be compiling a waitlist of those interested in getting a booster shot. To get on the list, people can register at the Corner Drug Store website at thecornerdrugstore.ca<\/a>. Beaver asks people not to call the Corner Drug Store to book a COVID-19 vaccination, to help keep the shop from being overwhelmed with calls.<\/p>\n

Over at Jean Coutu, the pharmacy just paused its vaccine program for the time being, and it\u2019s not yet known when it might start up again. Online registration is currently disabled for COVID vaccinations at Jean Coutu, and the pharmacy is not taking bookings by phone.<\/p>\n

Corner Drug Store pharmacist-owner Charles Beaver says anyone who had their COVID-19 booster more than five or six months ago should be registering for a second booster. He points to New Brunswick having the second highest COVID-19 transmission rate after Newfoundland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely quite clear that after six months, protection starts to wane,\u201d says Beaver. As always, a vaccination doesn\u2019t mean you won\u2019t get sick, \u201cbut if you had your third booster eight or nine or 10 months ago, and were to get COVID, you\u2019re likely to be much sicker,\u201d says Beaver. People can also end up with \u201ca longer recovery time, and potentially more risk of long term COVID, which is not something I would wish on anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding the possibility of waiting for the fall to see what new or tweaked vaccines are available, Beaver recommends taking what\u2019s available now. \u201cMy answer is get it now and get another one in six months,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Provincial numbers released Tuesday<\/a> show another four people died from COVID-19 last week, with the pandemic death toll now reaching 433. More than 2,400 people tested positive with rapid and PCR testing, a number that was up from last week, when under 2,000 of the people reporting has positive results.<\/p>\n

Beaver says the increase in cases is not a surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a society that\u2019s taking the masks off and doing things together in groups and whatnot. It\u2019s to be expected,\u201d says Beaver. \u201cBut the reality is, there is an awful lot of circulating COVID right now, and I certainly won\u2019t go into a crowded or not crowded public indoor space without a good fitting mask on personally.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Corner Drug Store has done thousands of vaccinations since the beginning of the pandemic, sometimes expanding service and collaborating with Vitalit\u00e9 health network on clinics. Lately, the pharmacy has been doing 60-100 doses per week, but Beaver says he expects they will need to expand current service to meet the new demand for second boosters.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll indicators are that there\u2019s an awful lot of interest,\u201d says Beaver. \u201cSo people do need to go on the waitlist. And once we have an idea of numbers, we can tool up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says there are summer vacations to work in the mix, but, \u201cif folks are patient, we\u2019ll get to them in the order that they put their names on the waiting list.\u201d<\/p>\n

People can register at thecornerdrugstore.ca<\/a> to book their dose of either Pfizer or Moderna. Beaver says both are widely available and either is a good choice.<\/p>\n

Hear this story as reported on CHMA's Tantramar Report:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anyone 18 and over can now get a second booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine in New Brunswick. The provincial government announced the expanded eligibility in a release Tuesday afternoon, saying the decision was based on current trends in the province that show \u201cincreasing risk.\u201d Chief Medical Officer of Health Jennifer Russell says there are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":49145,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[218,223],"tags":[7149,284,824,3619,2927],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105661"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105707,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105661\/revisions\/105707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105661"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=105661"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=105661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}