VACCIBUS TO TRAVEL ACROSS THE TERRITORY TO VACCINATE THE PUBLIC AGAINST COVID-19
“We’re so proud today to be inaugurating this Vaccibus, which will help us make vaccines more accessible. We will be visiting people to offer them their first dose and encourage them to get their second dose sooner, so that more people can be protected against COVID-19 by the end of the summer,” said Richard Deschamps, President and CEO of the CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre.
“The RTL is delighted to be collaborating on this initiative and helping everyone get back to normal as quickly as possible by using one of our vehicles to bring vaccination teams closer to citizens in the community,” said Jonathan Tabarah, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Réseau de transport de Longueuil. “We have been helping users get around safely since the beginning of the pandemic. We’ve offered shuttles to vaccination clinics and brought high school students and immigrants in vulnerable situations to clinics—and now we are introducing our first-ever Vaccibus for part of the territory of the Agglomération de Longueuil and the Montérégie region.”
The bus loaned out by the RTL has been revamped into a mobile vaccination site, with seats being removed to make room for vaccine preparation, triage and vaccination. The vehicle is accessible to individuals with reduced mobility. Tents will be set up on site, where people will check in and then wait the allotted time after having received the vaccine. A team formed by the Direction de la santé publique de la Montérégie will be going around to inform local residents that vaccinations are being offered nearby, and to invite them to come get theirs.
The Vaccibus will be running throughout the summer on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. It will be visiting various neighbourhoods of the municipalities on the territory, including Brossard, Longueuil, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Venise-en-Québec, among others. The route will be established to ensure that the Vaccibus prioritizes places with the lowest vaccination rates. The schedule will be announced on the CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/cisssmc.
The Vaccibus is one of several measures to boost access to COVID-19 vaccinations. We encourage anyone who has not yet received both vaccine doses to make an appointment at Québec.ca/vaccinCOVID or to visit one of the walk-in clinics listed here: https://www.santemonteregie.qc.ca/vaccination-contre-la-covid-19-en-monteregie.
The sooner we are all double-vaccinated, the sooner we can hope to see an end to the pandemic.
Photo credit: Robert Côté, photographer
Left to right: Jonathan Tabarah, Chairman of the RTL Board of Directors; Carine Sauvé, Vaccination Director at CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre; Richard Deschamps, President and CEO of CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre.