Health minister shrugs off vaccine tracking questions | Telegraph-Journal
Health Minister Dorothy Shephard says New Brunswick's two Regional Health Authorities are tracking who's getting the COVID-19 vaccine – days after they both admitted they don't have complete data from two early clinics because they didn't properly follow privacy rules.
And almost two months after vaccines started arriving in New Brunswick, Horizon Health Network says it's still finalizing a central database to track who's had their shots.
On Wednesday, Brunswick News obtained a copy of a Feb. 11 internal Vitalité Health Network memo which asked employees who were inoculated at clinics in Miramichi and Moncton in December to send an updated copy of their immunization records.
Vitalité spokesperson Thomas Lizotte later said that was necessary because the vaccine consent form given to workers who got shots at those clinics didn't ask them to share their health information with their employer. Public Health has the information, but can't share it with the RHAs because of privacy laws.
On Thursday, Horizon Health Network confirmed it made the same mistake.
"Horizon is tracking staff and physicians who are vaccinated and are working to consolidate information with early clinics held in Miramichi (Horizon-led) and Moncton (Vitalité-led)," Dr. Jean Daigle, Horizon's vice-president, community, said in an email statement.
"A central database is in development. As of Feb. 11, 1,423 Horizon staff and physicians have received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine."
Asked on Thursday afternoon who is ultimately responsible for tracking who's had their shots, and how much of that information can be shared because of privacy laws, Shephard didn't answer directly.
"I can tell you that both RHAs are tracking this right now," she said.
"I'm not sure how much extra data you need. The vaccination dashboards are updated on a weekly basis. We have our priority groups, and they're certainly coming through the clinics. I'm not sure what more information you would need publicly."
More to come ...
