Dragging a young student to a medical appointment is not easy, but for Tyler Bell, his COVID-19 shot was one he wasn’t going to miss.
For the past year, Bell said he has been cautious in school and “not going out much.” Getting the vaccine, he says, will make him “feel safer.”
His stepmom, who brought Bell to the Edmonton Expo vaccination centre, said the family didn’t have any doubts.
“Never,” said Lisa Baydala. “It’s going to make him safer. He’s also got asthma so we wanted to make sure he was extra safe in case he caught COVID.”
On Monday, May 10, Alberta opened up COVID-19 vaccine bookings to residents as young as 12 — just days after Health Canada approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for Canadians 12 and older.
“In other provinces you have to be older than 30, in some cases 40 to get vaccinated,” said Jason Kenney at a news conference on Tuesday.
“I’ve seen many parents say how it was even more emotional to book those appointments for their kids, than when they booked appointments for themselves.”
As of May 11, 2.4 per cent of Albertans aged 12 to 14 had received their first dose and 8.5 per cent of those aged 15 to 19 had theirs. The premier said on Tuesday, more than 11,000 people aged 12 to 29 booked in a for a shot.
Albertans have responded in a huge way to the start of Phase 3 of our vaccine rollout.
See precisely how the two age cohorts responded in real time below.
It was close, but the under-30s came out on top! pic.twitter.com/oMOI9tySll
— Jason Kenney (@jkenney) May 12, 2021
