premier jason kenney, however, is finally accepting help from the province of newfoundland and labrador, the canadian armed forces and the canadian red cross, who together will provide as many as 36 intensive-care medical staff to bolster alberta’s health-care system that is on the verge of reaching its capacity of surge icu beds.
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newfoundland and labrador is expected to send five or six icu experienced staff to be deployed to the northern lights regional health centre in fort mcmurray — a reverse order come from away .
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it appears the government has been holding off on accepting this help as its modelling seems to indicate the worst is yet to come , with peak covid infections hitting toward the end of october.
kenney also asked prime minister justin trudeau on wednesday to procure some johnson & johnson one-dose, protein-based vaccines in an effort to have more albertans who are hesitant — because of misinformation about the safety of mrna vaccines — to get vaccinated and stop clogging up our hospitals and causing the cancellation of life-saving surgeries for those who are.
a minimum order is 24,000 doses, so alberta is teaming up with b.c. and saskatchewan to order 50,000 j&j vaccines in the hopes of upping the vaccination rate of albertans, which has risen from just 78 per cent of first-dose coverage on sept. 3 to nearly 84 per cent today — 200,000 more people vaccinated since the government announced its unpopular and controversial $100 vaccine incentive for laggards and the restriction exemption program — better known as a vaccine passport — which must be shown to get into restaurants, hockey games and other areas where people congregate.
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