Nova Scotia requests federal help for COVID-19 booster vaccine roll-out

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia has asked the federal government for help in ramping up its COVID-19 vaccine booster rollout, amid the biggest wave of the disease in the province since the start of the pandemic.

The province has sent Ottawa a request for “resources to support our vaccine effort,” Health Department spokesperson Marla MacInnis confirmed Thursday in an email, without giving specifics.

“Details need to be finalized but we expect to get support from the Canadian Red Cross,” she said.

Officials have said new booster dose vaccine clinics across the province would begin scheduling appointments Thursday. Earlier this week, the province dropped the age of eligibility for booster shots to residents 30 years and older.

Meanwhile, health officials reported 745 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday and said there was an outbreak at the Inverness Consolidated Memorial Hospital, in Cape Breton.

They said there were 6,636 active infections in the province and 48 people in hospital with the disease, including nine patients in intensive care.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 6, 2022.

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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

The Canadian Press