Ottawa family doctor administers 500 COVID-19 vaccine doses during Jabapalooza
In the scorching heat and through the threat of rain, hundreds of Ottawa residents waited in line at Immaculata High School's soccer field to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
"It feels great getting my second dose,” said Marie, eager to travel to PEI in July.
It was the third Jabapalooza spearheaded by family physician, Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth. The Glebe doctor has been making a massive push to get shots in the arms of Ottawa residents.
"We’re immunizing 500 people today, Moderna as first doses and some seniors' second doses," she said.
Among those wrapping the track at Immaculata High School in Old Ottawa East was Katie Gibbs.
"I didn’t bring a hat, so this is now going to protect me from the sun," she said, referring to her umbrella.
The 37-year-old said standing in the sweltering heat is a fair price to pay for protection from COVID-19.
"I’m having a hard time believing this time has actually come," Gibbs said. "Pretty much everyone I know is vaccinated."
It’s not just the public still struggling to get their hands on doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
"Family doctors across Ontario should have been given vaccines right from the start so we can reach out to our own patients and book our own patients," said Kaplan-Myrth. "So people who don’t have a family doctor could go to public health and pharmacies."
Dr. Kaplan-Myrth says she secured 500 doses of Moderna from Ottawa Public Health after AstraZeneca doses, the vaccines administered during the first two Jabapalooza events, were put on hold.
As of Saturday, she says they’ll have administered 1,300 shots. Now, they need the province to come through with more for second doses that have been booked for as early as July.
"I don’t want to be begging for second doses to be sent to family medicines," Kaplan-Myrth said. "I’ve booked patients, I need the province to come through for family doctors."
With a Jabapalooza t-shirt, Gibbs is commemorating this moment, telling CTV News Ottawa it’s so much more than just a jab to the arm.
"As I told my son, it’s one step closer to doing things we used to do," said Gibbs.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
For the first time in report's history, Canada's air quality worse than U.S.
Air quality in Canada is now worse than in the U.S., according to the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report. Of the 15 most polluted cities in the two countries, 14 were in Canada.
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
BREAKING Roy McMurtry, former Ontario attorney general, dies at 91
CTV News has confirmed that former Ontario attorney general Roy McMurtry has died.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
DEVELOPING Canada's annual inflation rate ticked down to 2.8 per cent in February, defying expectations
Statistics Canada says the annual inflation rate edged down to 2.8 per cent in February.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.