Canada begins first Covid-19 vaccinations: ‘Today we turn a corner’
- Toronto carer and an octogenarian in Quebec among first to get shots
- Most Canadians should be vaccinated by September 2021, PM has said
Canada kicked off its inoculation campaign against Covid-19 on Monday by injecting frontline health care workers and elderly nursing home residents, becoming just the third nation in the world to administer the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The first dose broadcast on live TV went to Anita Quidangen. The personal support worker at the Rekai Centre, a non-profit nursing home for the elderly in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, said she was “excited” to have been first in line.
Health care workers in masks and white coats applauded after she was injected.
“Today really we turn a corner,” said Dr Kevin Smith, president and chief executive of the University Health Network’s Michener Institute, where the shot was administered.
“She has worked tirelessly to care for some of our most vulnerable, both throughout this pandemic and since her first days as a personal support worker in 1988,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said of Quidagen.
However, the province of Quebec, the hardest hit of Canada’s 10 provinces, said 89-year-old Gisele Levesque, a resident in a care home in Quebec City, had received the shot about a half-hour earlier than Quidangen – with no live TV coverage.
