Alberta snowbirds immunized outside Canada can now register to count towards the province's vaccine totals
It’s taken months, but an Airdrie couple says their COVID-19 immunizations have finally been recognized by provincial officials, bringing Alberta that much closer to life as normal.
It's something snowbirds have been pushing for as Alberta inches towards vaccination benchmarks tied to its three-step reopening plan.
Ernie Messner is one of those Albertans who has been fully immunized since February, but doesn't yet count towards the province's total because he received his shots in Arizona.
"That's part of our frustration with this is that we know we're counted into the not vaccinated part, but we are fully vaccinated," Messner said.
"I'm sure there are thousands of Albertans that came back from the United States and had their shots and were not counted."
Messner and his wife received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine in the U.S. and came back to Alberta in April. They said they've been asking their MLA and other health officials why they hadn't counted towards the province's goal of having 70 per cent of its eligible population vaccinated to reach stage three of its reopening plan.
"The faster we get there, the faster we get back to normal," he said.
However, provincial officials say the Messner’s problem is short-lived.
"Anyone who has been immunized outside of the province can drop off a copy of their records at an AHS public health clinic to have those records entered into our system and count to the provincial total," reads a statement from Alberta Health.
Though Alberta now has a process to count those people, most other provinces do not.
"A lot of the provinces don't have their processes and procedures fully in place yet to record vaccines that were administered outside of the province or outside of the country," said Stephen Fine with snowbirdadvisor.ca.
Fine's website has been updating its guidelines for returning snowbirds for every province. Counting towards the totals for reopening is the main concern for snowbirds right now, but Fine said there are two other implications down the road.
"There's a possibility of vaccine passports being introduced in the future and they're going to need their records recorded or reflected somewhere publicly and they could have issues with vaccine passports in the future," Fine said.
"The third issue is booster shots. We don't know if and when we're going to require booster shots for COVID vaccines, but if we do, there could be issues if their previous shots were not recorded."
Alberta Health said the amount of people immunized out of the province is expected to have minimal impact on provincial vaccine totals. Work is also underway on an automated process to track Albertans who were vaccinated in another health authority.
Tracking vaccine totals is up to individual provinces and the Public Health Agency of Canada said it did not have an estimate for how many Canadians have received their shots out of the country.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'State or state-sponsored actor' believed to be behind B.C. government hacks
The head of British Columbia’s civil service has revealed that a “state or state-sponsored actor” is behind multiple cyber-security incidents against provincial government networks.
Here's how much more Canadian landlords are asking for now, according to a just-released report
A new report says the average asking rent for a home in Canada in April was up 9.3 per cent compared with a year ago, while a slight month-over-month increase was also recorded for the first time since January.
Rare severe solar storm Friday could bring spectacular aurora light show across Canada
A rare and severe solar storm is expected to bring spectacular displays of the northern lights, also known as aurora borealis, across much of Canada and parts of the United States on Friday night.
What is basic income, and how would it impact me?
Parliamentarians are considering a pair of bills aiming to lift people out of poverty through a basic income program, but some fear these types of systems could result in more taxes for Canadians who are already financially struggling.
Canada abstains from Palestinian UN membership vote but supports two-state solution
Canada was one of 25 countries that abstained from a United Nations vote on Palestinian membership that passed with overwhelming support on Friday.
More than half the Canadians once detained in Syrian camps for suspected ISIS family members have returned home
A total of 29 Canadians have been freed from detention camps in northeast Syria and brought back to Canada since human rights advocates began lobbying for their release years ago.
'I may have some nightmares:' Man survives being bitten by 2 sharks in Bahamas
A man who was bitten by two sharks in the Bahamas said Thursday he's 'thankful that I'm here' while sharing his story of survival.
Out-of-control wildfire burning near Fort McMurray
As of 9 a.m. on Friday, the wildfire burning 28 kilometres southwest of the northeastern Alberta city was 25 hectares in size.
Mexico's president accuses press and volunteer searchers for missing people of 'necrophilia'
The administration of Mexico's president has accused the press and volunteer searchers who look for the bodies of missing people of 'necrophilia,' comments that drew criticism this week.