COVID-19 vaccines will no longer be free for the general public in Quebec starting this fall.
The province’s health department confirmed the change in policy Wednesday.
Only specific groups will continue to be eligible for subsidized vaccines, including people with chronic health conditions, those aged 65 and older, and health-care workers.
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The department says most of the population has already been exposed to the virus and that healthy adults with COVID-19 immunity no longer need to be prioritized for vaccination.
According to Quebec’s association of owner-pharmacists, a dose of the vaccine costs between $150 and $180.
Quebec is the second province, after Alberta, to stop offering the vaccine free to its entire population.
Alberta announced the plan back in June, after the federal government put the provinces in charge of buying COVID-19 vaccines, as is routine with other immunization programs.
For more information, consult Quebec’s Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) release here.
–with files from Quinn Ohler
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