Nova Scotia's new vaccine clinic opens in downtown Halifax

New vaccine clinic opens in Halifax Nova Scotia ramps up vaccine strategy with new clinic, but there are concerns about staffing it. Suzette Belliveau reports.

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia's brand new COVID-19 vaccine clinic opened its doors inside the Halifax convention centre on Thursday.

"I'm going for my second shot and I'm excited it will be all over," said one of the first people to go to the new clinic.

The community clinic was expected to administer about 500 doses Thursday and Friday -- before doubling that number on Saturday.

"Starting on Tuesday, we'll have probably close to 1,000 scheduled appointments and maybe just shy of 200 walk-ins," said Dr. Annette Elliott Rose, the IWK's clinical care vice-president and chief nurse executive.

Nova Scotia is expected to receive more than 245-thousand doses of Moderna by the end of June -- along with its regular Pfizer shipments.

But, with a large influx of vaccines -- the head of Nova Scotia's nurses union had concerns.

"Do we have enough vaccinators?" said Janet Hazelton. "Do we have enough healthcare professionals that are willing to give up their time to do it -- cause it's over and above."

The union reached out to its membership -- and hundreds answered the call to help put shots into the arms of Nova Scotians.

"What the NSNU provided us with was an extra list of people," said Tracey Barbrick, Nova Scotia's associate deputy minister in charge of vaccine strategy. "So, some of those people had already gone through the Nova Scotia Health process to be screened and set up to go, and then there was some extra people and then we've a whole lot of people that put up their hand and said I'll take some more shifts."

And, as the province continues to move-up second dose appointments, Barbrick says about 15,000 Nova Scotians still need to get their first dose before the province hits its 75 per cent target.