Plans are underway to establish on-site COVID-19 immunization clinics at the Cargill meat processing facility just north of High River.
Alberta Health Services along with the Alberta International Medical Graduates Association and the Highland, Mosaic and Calgary Rural Primary Care Networks are partnering in this effort.
Immunization at these clinics will be provided by occupational health nurses employed by Cargill. AHS has offered public health nursing staff to assist in the training of Cargill nurses and will also provide support as required at the immunization clinics.
Cargill is working on the administrative process for the operation of these clinics including management of supplies and orienting the Cargill nursing team. AHS and Primary Care Network staff will provide on-site support with scheduling and flow of the clinics.
Dates and times for these clinics will be determined by timing of Phase 2C rollout and vaccine availability. AHS will ensure adequate vaccine supply is provided for each clinic.
AHS and its partners will look to expand this pilot to other meat processing plants in the coming weeks, as our vaccine supply becomes more consistent.
An outbreak of COVID-19 took place at the High River plant in April of 2020 and the facility was closed for two weeks. There were 484 cases of the coronavirus linked to the plant on April 20, 2020.
There have been three deaths linked to COVID at the plant, which employs approximately 2,000 people.
(Information courtesy of Alberta Health Services and Okotoks Today files)
Further information will be added in near future.
