Manitoba will continue covering the cost of COVID-19 shots as some other provinces begin charging residents.
The vaccinations are free for anyone six months and up and will remain that way in Manitoba, according to the province.
“There are no plans to change Manitoba’s policy at this time,” reads a statement from a Manitoba government spokesperson.
The news comes as Alberta and Quebec recently announced they would stop offering COVID-19 shots for free to the general public.
Comments closedAlbertans who don’t qualify for free COVID-19 vaccinations in their home province can get one in British Columbia.
B.C.’s Ministry of Health confirmed that detail in response to a query from CBC News. Canadian residents can get vaccinated due to a reciprocal agreement between all provinces and territories.
“Any publicly funded immunization in B.C. can be provided at no cost to any Canadian travelling within the province,” a statement from the ministry said. “This includes providing publicly funded COVID-19 vaccine to people of Alberta.”
Comments closedCalls are growing louder in Alberta for the COVID-19 vaccine to be covered free of charge for all residents, following the province’s decision Tuesday to partially reverse its vaccine policy and expand coverage to some health-care workers.
While the move has been welcomed by workers and unions, public health experts and critics say it doesn’t go far enough, leaving many Albertans uncertain about access to the vaccine.
“The government has now taken a step towards admitting that they had the wrong approach,” said Chris Galloway, executive director at Friends of Medicare.
Comments closedEDMONTON – In a partial policy reversal, Alberta’s government said Tuesday it will cover the cost of COVID-19 vaccinations for health-care workers.
Maddison McKee, spokesperson to Primary and Preventative Health Services Minister Adriana LaGrange, said in an email that COVID-19 vaccine coverage will be extended to all health-care workers this fall under the first phase of the province’s vaccination rollout.
“Immunization will remain voluntary,” said McKee.
Comments closedCanada is at risk of losing its measles elimination status as an outbreak that started in New Brunswick last year continues to grow.
Measles has been considered eliminated in Canada since 1998, and the country saw an average of 91 cases annually before October 2024, when the outbreak began. The designation means that, within a certain geographical region, there has been no sustained measles transmission over 12 consecutive months.
Since then, of the 4,394 measles infections nationwide, Health Canada data shows that most individuals were exposed to the virus domestically (94 per cent) and were not vaccinated (88 per cent).
Comments closedAlberta Premier Danielle Smith’s radical new rules for COVID immunization pose a genuine threat to the elderly, the working poor and pregnant moms.
Smith, who revived her ailing political career by peddling conspiratorial COVID theories, has designed a program that is not only punitive but discriminatory, bureaucratic and Soviet in nature.
“This policy is so bad that it’s actually worse than their usual failure to plan properly,” said James Talbot, the province’s former chief medical officer of health. “In fact, it is so bad it looks like they are actually planning to fail.”
Here are the three basic tenets of any successful public health program: make it available, make it accessible and make it affordable. Smith turns all three upside down.
Comments closedAs Alberta’s measles outbreaks grow, researchers are now watching the province’s wastewater for the highly contagious virus and hoping to determine if the technology could eventually serve as an early detection tool.
The magnitude of Alberta’s outbreaks and the speed at which cases are climbing has sparked widespread concern. As of midday Tuesday, 1,323 cases had been confirmed since the outbreaks began in March.
Piggybacking off weekly wastewater samples, collected through the provincial COVID-19 surveillance program, the team has designed a test that can identify both the wild type measles virus (indicating actual infection) and vaccine-related shedding in the wastewater.
Comments closedAlberta has now confirmed more measles cases than the entire United States has reported this year.
The province has been battling outbreaks since March and as of noon Monday, total case counts in the province had ballooned to 1,314.
The latest update from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that country has amassed 1,288 cases this year.
Comments closedAlberta’s decision to reduce access to publicly funded COVID-19 vaccines so far appears to set the province on a different course than many other Canadian jurisdictions.
Most Albertans will no longer be eligible for a free COVID-19 shot this fall.
The provincial government recently announced plans to limit coverage to specific high-risk groups, including Albertans living in care homes and group settings, those receiving home care, people on social programs such as AISH, and immunocompromised individuals.
All other seniors, pregnant Albertans and health care workers are not included, despite strong recommendations by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) that they should be vaccinated. NACI also recommends that everyone else may receive an annual dose.
Comments closedVANCOUVER – British Columbia Premier David Eby says the growing spread of measles across Canada is “the sadly predictable outcome” of the “recklessness” of anti-vaccination politicians.
Eby says the disease is “no joke,” given the potentially serious impact on those infected, and it’s preventable with two vaccine shots.
He told a Vancouver news conference that the focus for provincial public health authorities now is to make sure that people who are not protected receive full vaccination.
Comments closedAlberta’s measles outbreaks have now eclipsed the 1,000-case mark and infectious disease specialists are warning the virus is “impossible to contain,” given the current level of transmission.
The province reported another 24 cases on Friday, including 14 in the north zone, nine in the south and one in the Edmonton zone.
This brings the total confirmed cases since the outbreaks began in March to 1,020.
Comments closedThe Alberta government is facing fierce and mounting opposition to plans that will reduce access to publicly funded COVID-19 vaccines in the province
The province announced late on Friday that it will limit funding of the COVID-19 shots to very specific high risk groups, including Albertans living in care homes and group settings, those receiving home care, people on social programs such as AISH, and immunocompromised individuals.
Seniors living in the community, pregnant Albertans and health-care workers will have to pay out of pocket for the vaccine, along with the rest of the population.
Comments closedOn May 27, the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics published a patient information page about Long COVID in children. It states “Long COVID is common, affecting up to 10 per cent to 20 per cent of children with a history of COVID-19. With almost six million U.S. children potentially affected, this is higher than the number of children with asthma, the most common chronic health problem in children.”
Two weeks later on June 13, Danielle Smith’s UCP, famously fans of the anti-science Trump government, highlighted horrifically unscientific new FDA guidance suggesting healthy children and pregnant women are not recommended for COVID vaccination, while announcing a new policy where most Albertans have to pay for immunization.
Beyond the obvious inequities and loss of access that payment for prophylaxis presents, the UCP introduced a new four-phase rollout plan whereby those under age 65 without qualifying conditions cannot be vaccinated until the final phase. This means kids will likely head back to schools months before they are eligible for vaccination, ensuring they are exposed to the latest COVID strains before becoming eligible for updated vaccination. It also leaves the UCP an opening to not buy pediatric vaccines at all and claim “low demand.”
Comments closedAlberta’s measles surge is so dramatic, the last time case counts were higher Calgary did not have an NHL team, O Canada was not yet the official national anthem and gasoline would set you back 24 cents a litre.
The province reported 29 more cases on Thursday, bringing the total since the outbreaks began in March to 868. That pushes the province past the levels seen during a surge in 1986, when 854 cases were reported.
A higher case count hasn’t been recorded since 1979.
Comments closedThe City of Edmonton has activated its extreme weather response due to high-risk air quality caused by wildfire smoke. The response began at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, and will continue until 9:00 a.m. on Monday, with possible extension if conditions persist.
City recreation centres, pools, and libraries are open to anyone needing relief from the smoke.
These indoor spaces offer cleaner air, unlike transit centres and LRT stations, which are exposed to outdoor air.
Free N95 masks and bottled water are also available at some City facilities, including libraries and recreation centres.
Residents are urged to stay indoors, keep windows closed, and check on vulnerable neighbours.
Comments closedToronto is currently the second most polluted major city in the world as wildfire smoke spreads across the city, according to a global tracker.
The ranking by IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company, puts the city below Santiago, Chile, and above Montreal, which is in third place as it also faces wildfire smoke from western provinces.
As of noon Friday, air quality in Toronto was above 10 on Environment Canada’s air quality health index, which means “very high risk,” according to the weather agency’s website.
Comments closedA new poll suggests nearly 70 per cent of Canadians support mandatory childhood vaccinations, but at least one public health official says she’s uncomfortable with the idea of forcing parents to immunize their kids.
The Angus Reid Institute survey landed Thursday as Public Health Ontario said 93 new measles cases have emerged in the province over the past week, bringing the total number of infections there to 1,888 since October.
The poll found 69 per cent of respondents said proof of immunization should be required for kids to attend daycare and school. That’s an increase from the 55 per cent of respondents who said the same thing last year, before a measles outbreak emerged in multiple provinces and infected mostly unvaccinated infants, kids and teens.
Comments closed