The Edmonton zone has maintained its narrow lead over the Calgary zone since the mayors of Alberta's largest cities entered a friendly competition for COVID-19 vaccine uptake last month.
On April 26, Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson remarked that the provincial government had started publishing more detailed data about its vaccine program, including a breakdown of doses administered by zone. He challenged Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi over Twitter to see which city could get its residents immunized the fastest.
"I say, challenge accepted!" Nenshi tweeted in response the following day.
This chart shows how the competition has been progressing, indicating the percentage of each zone's population that has received at least one dose of the vaccine, and the percentage that has received both doses. The City of Edmonton began compiling the data on April 25, using numbers from Alberta Health Services.
The zones also include surrounding municipalities.
When Iveson issued the challenge, 28.8% of the Edmonton zone had received one dose, compared to 25.9% of the Calgary zone. While Calgary has narrowed the gap slightly since then, as of May 15, Edmonton is still ahead by 2.5%, at 44.6% compared to 42.1%.
Calgary is catching up a little quicker when it comes to administering both doses. On April 26, 6.8% of the Edmonton zone was fully vaccinated compared to 5.8% of the Calgary zone. As of May 15, Calgary has cut this lead in half — 7.5% of the Edmonton zone is fully vaccinated compared to 7% of the Calgary zone.
Regardless of which city is winning, Alberta has the third highest number of doses administered per capita of any province in Canada, behind Saskatchewan and Quebec. As of May 15, 41.6% of the province has received at least one dose, and 7.3% is fully vaccinated.