Community Vaccine Clinics Will Continue – For Now

New Brunswick’s health minister says they have no plans to wind down community COVID-19 vaccination clinics just yet.

But Dorothy Shephard says if the clinics are not busy enough, they will have to consider looking at how their resources are deployed.

“We know that we have nursing shortages in this province, we know that we have health-care issues that we have to deal with,” Shephard said in a phone interview.

“We have nurses who have come out of retirement to provide this service. We are using Ambulance New Brunswick and Extra-Mural. At some point, our resources are going to have to go back to where they were.”

Nova Scotia recently announced that its community vaccination clinics would end on Aug. 15. The province will instead focus on providing vaccines at pharmacies and primary care clinics.

Shephard said there are “thousands” of first and second dose Pfizer and Moderna appointments available at clinics across the province.

Nearly every community clinic is also talking walk-ins to make it even easier for people to get vaccinated, she said.

“There’s no intent to wind down yet but I have to say that even in my mind, we need to consider looking at how our resources are deployed right now and ensuring that they are deployed to the very best use of our ability,” she said.