The Kamloops-based Centre for Seniors Information says there have been a lot of questions from seniors as the province began to take vaccine appointments for people over 90 this past Monday.

Executive Director Brandi Allen says for the most part people are excited but also a little bit nervous.

“That is what we are here for is to kind of walk through the steps and give them the information they need to get their appointments booked,” she said on the NL Morning News.

“What I like to tell everybody too is to make sure you know when you’re supposed to call, be patient when you do call because I’m sure there’s going to be higher call volumes, and knowing what to have ready when you call and kind of the big questions that we’re getting right now.”

Seniors over 90 and Indigenous people over 65 could start booking COVID-19 vaccine appointments this past Monday. According to Health Minister Adrian Dix, there are only about 82,000 people eligible to book an appointment at this time – about 47,000 people over the age of 90 in the province and about 35,000 Indigenous people over 65.

He promised that things would get better after the rocky rollout of the phone system left many people frustrated as they tried to book a COVID-19 vaccine appointment.

People born before 1936 (85 and older) can start booking appointments this coming Monday, while those born before 1941 (80 and older) can do so starting on March 22. Mass vaccination clinics for the general population (beginning with people aged 75 to 79) are expected to get underway on April 12.

“So far, we haven’t been asked to help anybody book an appointment. We have just been giving everybody the information that the need to book their own appointment,” Allen told NL News. “If somebody did contact us and say that they weren’t confident to do it by themselves or didn’t have a family member to help them, we absolutely would. We haven’t been asked yet, is all.”

There will be two mass COVID-19 vaccine clinics in Kamloops – one at the McArthur Island curling rink and the other at the Tournament Capital Centre Fieldhouse. In all, there will be 48 mass vaccine clinics in Interior Health, eight within the boundaries of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District.

For a location of clinics and other information, go here.