Teen immigrants and international students enrolled at Quebec colleges and universities – and even those just visiting the Province of Quebec – are being urged by the province to come in for free COVID-19 vaccine shots provided they are 12 years of age or older.
“As part of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign now underway in Quebec, the immigration minister would like to ensure that all of our clients 12 years of age and older who reside in Quebec can get their COVID-19 vaccination for free regardless of their immigration status,” the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration (MIFI) states on its website.
But it’s not just immigrants who are eligible for the free COVID-19 vaccine shots.
A quick call to the toll-free, information hotline was enough to confirm on Friday that international students, who are in the province on study permits, are also eligible. Even visitors from another Canadian province who do not live in Quebec are being welcomed to get the free shots in La Belle Province.
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Anyone old enough under the current guidelines who wants to book an appointment to get a COVID-19 vaccine can do so online by going to Clic Santé.
Walk-In Clinics Allow Immigrants To Get Vaccinated Without Appointment
There are also walk-in clinics that allow people to get their COVID-19 shots without needing to book an appointment. A complete list of the locations of these integrated health and social services centres (CISSS) is available online as well.
It’s not necessary to have a provincial medical card, the Carte d’assurances santé, to get the COVID-19 shot. The province is only requiring that those who want to get vaccinated present a valid identification card.
Anyone with questions about the vaccination program and who wants help is being urged by MIFI to call any of the following numbers from 8am to 8pm Monday through Friday and 8.30 am through to 4.30 pm on Saturdays and Sundays:
- In the Quebec City region: 418 644-4545;
- In Montreal: 514 644-4545, and;
- Outside the province: 1 877 644-4545, toll-free.
Temporary Workers On Quebec Farms Already Cleared To Get Vaccinated
Quebec’s decision to open up its vaccination program to immigrant teens comes a little more than a month after it began to make COVID-19 vaccines available for temporary foreign workers on Quebec farms.
“These temporary foreign workers are included in the priority group of essential workers in environments at high risk of an outbreak,” MIFI stated at that time.
Anyone who arrives in Quebec, whether a temporary foreign farmworker, an international student or even just a tourist from another Canadian province, must wait until the end of their mandatory quarantine period before getting vaccinated.
As of May 29, the most recent date for which figures are available, 59.2 per cent of Quebeckers had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
That’s higher than the Canadian vaccination nationally which sat at just under 56.8 per cent of the population as of that date.
