High demand for COVID shots as province cuts fees for pharmacies
The busy vaccine season comes as the province announced a cut to funding pharmacies used to receive for doing COVID-19 assessments. Until last week, pharmacies could bill the province $20 per COVID-19 assessment for up to five assessments a day.
The province announced it would reduce the fees that pharmacies can charge the province for administering vaccines to $17 from $25 ahead of the Oct. 16 vaccine rollouts. Premier Danielle Smith’s government changed its tune last Wednesday and postponed the fee cut until Jan.1. In April, the province plans to reduce fees to $13, the amount pharmacies receive for giving flu shots.
Schettler was relieved to hear the province is delaying the fee cut until January, as she feared having to reduce the hours of a part-time staff member who manages injections.
“I’m disappointed the reduction has been made to match flu injections, given that [COVID injections] are way more work,” she said. “You’ve got to use it within so many hours of opening, some of them require reconstitution … and you’re trying to book your appointments so you’re not wasting doses.
“I don’t know what we’ll do come the new year,” Schettler said. “[We’ll] look at what the demand looks like and decide whether we’re continuing to offer them. We likely will, because pharmacists are like that. We want to take care of the public.” Read more https://www.albertaprimetimes.com/edmonton-news/high-demand-for-covid-shots-as-province-cuts-fees-for-pharmacies-7690288 www.albertaprimetimes.com/edmo…
Chinese military jet intercepts Canadian Forces plane in ‘aggressive manner’: Chinese military jet intercepted a Canadian Armed Forces Aurora aircraft in an “aggressive manner” on Monday in international waters off the coast of China.
“They became very aggressive and to a degree we would deem it unsafe and unprofessional,” Maj.-Gen. Iain Huddleston told Global News.
Global News was on board the Canadian military aircraft reporting on the mission, which is part of Operation NEON, Canada’s contribution to helping enforce sanctions against North Korea, when the aggressive intercepts took place.
“It’s a ramp-up of the aggressiveness that’s really unexpected and unnecessary in the context of the mission that we’re flying,” Huddleston said.
At least two different Chinese jets intercepted the Canadian plane consistently for multiple hours during the more than eight-hour-long mission. The Chinese jets came within about five metres of the Canadian plane.