N.B. COVID-19 roundup: Vaccine demand down to 'a trickle,' says head of pharmacists' group
CBC
The demand for COVID-19 vaccinations in the province has slowed down significantly, according to the head of the New Brunswick Pharmacists' Association.
Jake Reid says there's lots of capacity in the system, but filling all the available appointments in vaccination clinics right now is a challenge.
Only about 3,000 people got their shots on Monday, the province's dashboard shows.
"That's a very, very low number," said Reid.
He estimates the province can accommodate more than 10,000 shots a day between the Horizon and Vitalité health network clinics and the pharmacy clinics.
"So we're really seeing a bit of a trickle right now. Very few first doses and second doses, you know, a few hundred sort of. But booster doses, where we really expected to see more people, there's lots of people that should be still getting their booster doses, and the demand is slow."
Department of Health officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
As of Tuesday, 44.3 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers have had their booster shot, 84.5 per cent have received two doses of a vaccine, and 92.1 per cent have received one dose, according to the dashboard.
Reid says it's "surprising" that there's still "a majority" of people who could receive their booster dose, who haven't.
"When we were getting our first doses, the demand was incredible. And then we saw when we went to second doses that that started to peter off a little bit. We didn't see the same escalation of demand for second dose. And we still don't," he said, noting there's an eight per cent gap between people who received their first dose and second dose.
"So that really fell off and then booster, it fell off even more."
The demand for pediatric doses is also much lower than expected, said Reid.
Public Health officials were hopeful before Christmas that first doses would be administered to 50 per cent of children aged five to 11 by the end of 2021. That threshold was reached just a couple weeks ago. As of Tuesday, the rate stands at 56.4 per cent.
A new online booking system for pharmacies might encourage more people to book appointments, he said. Many pharmacies have signed onto a central system.