The first dose of COVID-19 vaccine in New Brunswick was administered to a long-term care home resident at the Miramichi Regional Hospital Saturday morning.
Pauline Gauvin, an 84-year-old Miramichi resident, received one of 1,950 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses expected to be distributed to people in the province.
Gauvin said getting the shot was a piece of cake.
“I’m used to getting needles,” said Gauvin after getting the first shot.
Everyone getting this first shipment of the vaccine is from a high-priority group, which includes long-term care residents and staff, health-care workers and seniors 85 or older.
Nurse Nicolette Noel became the second person in New Brunswick to receive the shot. Noel is an RN at the Miramichi Regional Hospital ICU.
After Noel came Dr. Carl Boucher, a family and emergency room doctor from Caraquet. Following Boucher was paramedic Joel LeFort of Moncton and extra-mural nurse Mandy Whalen of Dieppe.
On Friday, Health Minister Dorothy Shephard said a lot of planning has gone into this weekend’s clinics.
“We’re fully booked, everything’s in place,” said Shephard.
“So we’re looking forward to a smooth weekend, and we’ll get those reports when it’s all done.”
The province says more doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are on the way, with 3,900 scheduled to arrive next week, 3,900 on the week of Jan. 4 and “regular deliveries” starting during the week of Jan. 11.
