Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine to be administered in the province will happen Tuesday afternoon.
Kenney made the announcement while appearing on the Danielle Smith Show on 770 CHQR Tuesday morning.
“I’ve got breaking news for you, Danielle, if you’d like,” Kenney said about 45 minutes into his hour-long interview.
“I just got confirmation from AHS that the first vaccination will be administered to a nurse I believe at 4 p.m. today, I think probably in south Calgary.”
Alberta Health confirmed the premier’s announcement to Global News and said more details would be released “soon.”
The first shipment of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Alberta on Monday night, at the Calgary airport.
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“We’ve just watched UPS unload our first 3,900 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine,” Kenney said in a video posted to Twitter. “It has now arrived here in Alberta as of 5 p.m.”
Read more: Alberta receives 1st shipment of COVID-19 vaccine, to start immunizations ‘as soon as possible’
The vaccine arrived ahead of schedule. On Monday, the government said the first shipment was expected Tuesday and the first vaccine was likely to be administered on Wednesday.
Health-care workers, including ICU doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists, and long-term care workers in Calgary and Edmonton will be the first to receive the vaccine.
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