Province of Alberta offering third dose of Covid-19 vaccine to seniors living in care facilities

Third vaccine doses available Sept. 1

Starting Sept. 1, third doses of COVID-19 vaccine will be available for all seniors living in congregate care facilities and for immunocompromised Albertans.

Alberta’s government has always prioritized the care of our most vulnerable. Alberta was one of the first provinces to offer vaccines to seniors in congregate care facilities and to immunocompromised Albertans.

Receiving a third dose will boost immunity levels and improve protection for all seniors living in congregate care facilities and individuals with compromised immune systems.

In addition, mRNA doses will be made available to Albertans who are travelling to a jurisdiction that does not accept visitors who have been vaccinated with Covishield/AstraZeneca or mixed doses.

“We remain committed to protecting Albertans from COVID-19, and vaccinations are the safest and most effective way to offer this protection. We have always relied on the latest research to guide our decision-making, and now that evidence shows immunocompromised individuals and seniors in congregate care will benefit from getting a third dose, we are pleased to provide them.”

Tyler Shandro, Minister of Health

“The data shows that additional doses will offer stronger protection for immunocompromised individuals and older Albertans living in supportive living facilities. Just as we offered these individuals earlier access to COVID-19 vaccines and a shorter four-week interval between doses, we will continue to work to protect all Albertans as new data emerges. However, the best way for us to protect each other is still for as many people as possible to be fully immunized.”

Dr. Deena Hinshaw, chief medical officer of health

Seniors living in congregate care

Seniors living in congregate care facilities will be eligible to receive their third dose approximately five months after their second dose. Eligible residents will receive their third doses at their facilities.

Immunocompromising conditions

Immunocompromising conditions that qualify for an additional dose at least eight weeks after their second dose include:

Transplant recipients, including solid organ transplants and hematopoietic stem cell transplants.
Individuals with chronic kidney disease who are receiving regular dialysis.
Individuals in active cancer treatment (chemotherapy, immunotherapy or targeted therapies) excluding those receiving only hormonal therapy, radiation therapy or surgery.
Individuals on certain medications for autoimmune diseases, including rituximab, ocrelizumab and ofatumumab.

Travel vaccinations

Albertans with two valid doses of any vaccine used in Alberta are considered to have received a complete series.

However, some jurisdictions outside of Canada have indicated that they will not accept visitors who have been vaccinated with Covishield/AstraZeneca or mixed doses.

Additional mRNA doses will be made available at least 28 days after a second dose to Albertans who are travelling to a jurisdiction that does not accept visitors who have been vaccinated with Covishield/AstraZeneca or mixed doses.

Quick facts

There are 118,000 individuals who would be eligible for an additional COVID-19 vaccine dose based on being immunocompromised (approximately 60,000 Albertans) and those living in seniors supportive living (approximately 58,000 Albertans).
To date, 77.9 per cent of Albertans aged 12-plus have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 69.7 per cent have received two doses.
Immunizations records are available through MyHealth Records. Albertans who are travelling can also use their hard copy record that was provided at the time of vaccination.

Related Topics:#ProvinceofAlberta #ThirdDose Covid19 feature

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Temporary Alberta grid limit unlikely to dampen data centre investment, analyst says

Published on July 14, 2025

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From the Canadian Energy Centre

By Cody Ciona

‘Alberta has never seen this level and volume of load connection requests’

Billions of investment in new data centres is still expected in Alberta despite the province’s electric system operator placing a temporary limit on new large-load grid connections, said Carson Kearl, lead data centre analyst for Enverus Intelligence Research.

Kearl cited NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s estimate from earlier this year that building a one-gigawatt data centre costs between US$60 billion and US$80 billion.

That implies the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO)’s 1.2 gigawatt temporary limit would still allow for up to C$130 billion of investment.

“It’s got the potential to be extremely impactful to the Alberta power sector and economy,” Kearl said.

Importantly, data centre operators can potentially get around the temporary limit by ‘bringing their own power’ rather than drawing electricity from the existing grid.

In Alberta’s deregulated electricity market – the only one in Canada – large energy consumers like data centres can build the power supply they need by entering project agreements directly with electricity producers.

According to the AESO, there are 30 proposed data centre projects across the province.

The total requested power load for these projects is more than 16 gigawatts, roughly four gigawatts more than Alberta’s demand record in January 2024 during a severe cold snap.

For comparison, Edmonton’s load is around 1.4 gigawatts, the AESO said.

“Alberta has never seen this level and volume of load connection requests,” CEO Aaron Engen said in a statement.

“Because connecting all large loads seeking access would impair grid reliability, we established a limit that preserves system integrity while enabling timely data centre development in Alberta.”

As data centre projects come to the province, so do jobs and other economic benefits.

“You have all of the construction staff associated; electricians, engineers, plumbers, and HVAC people for all the cooling tech that are continuously working on a multi-year time horizon. In the construction phase there’s a lot of spend, and that is just generally good for the ecosystem,” said Kearl.

Investment in local power infrastructure also has long-term job implications for maintenance and upgrades, he said.

“Alberta is a really exciting place when it comes to building data centers,” said Beacon AI CEO Josh Schertzer on a recent ARC Energy Ideas podcast.

“It has really great access to natural gas, it does have some excess grid capacity that can be used in the short term, it’s got a great workforce, and it’s very business-friendly.”

The unaltered reproduction of this content is free of charge with attribution to the Canadian Energy Centre.

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