The province has unveiled details of its plans to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine when it arrives.
Premier Scott Moe, Minister of Health Paul Merriman, Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab and other officials made the announcement Wednesday, a day behind schedule after a power failure at the legislature scrubbed their planned Tuesday press conference.
The plan will begin with a pilot program on Dec. 15 at Regina General Hospital and continue in phases. Over 200,000 doses are anticipated to arrive in January, which would vaccinate over 100,000 people.
鈥淲e have full confidence in that plan,鈥� said Moe, who noted some good news that day. In the last few minutes the Pfizer vaccine had been approved by Health Canada. Moe also noted that Saskatchewan would be receiving the vaccine more quickly and in larger quantities than anticipated.
Here are some of the highlights from Wednesday鈥檚 announcement, as outlined in that news conference and in a press release from the province:
The Pfizer vaccine will begin being distributed Dec. 15 in a pilot program provided at Regina General Hospital. The vaccine will be for approximately 1,950 people and will be delivered to health care workers providing direct care to COVID-19 patients.
The first recipients will be health care workers in ICUs, emergency departments and COVID units at Regina General and Pasqua Hospitals and staff at testing and assessment centres. Pilot recipients will receive a first dose, and then receive a second dose 21 days later.
Phase one is then expected to begin late December, 2020, with 202,052 doses expected within the first quarter of 2021. This includes expected weekly allocations of 10,725 doses of Pfizer vaccine.
The Moderna vaccine is expected to arrive in January and weekly allocations are currently being finalized. This plan is flexible, and can be moved up as more supplies come in.
This first phase will focus on immunizing 鈥減riority populations鈥� at a higher risk of exposure to the virus or more at risk of serious illness 鈥� health care workers, elderly residents in care homes, seniors over 80, and residents in northern remote communities. Priority population immunization would be on a sliding scale, starting with seniors over 80, then seniors over 75, then seniors 70 and so on.聽聽
The second phase is expected in April, 2021 and continue priority population immunization in a sliding scale. The goal in this phase is to immunize everyone in the province.
Distribution will occur at public health clinics and other vaccination delivery sites across the province.
As well, there are plans in progress on safe storage of vaccines and sequenced distribution across the province. The Pfizer vaccine in particular must be stored at -70. Some equipment has been ordered or is coming; there are also some freezers available already.
There will be a public communications plan including weekly updates and news releases. A website will also be set up. There will also be a significant public relations campaign to provide accurate and timely information about the safety of the vaccine and the importance of getting vaccinated, and that will begin this month.
The vaccine distribution will be a massive undertaking, said Merriman. But he noted 鈥淪askatchewan has a very strong history when it comes to immunization.鈥�
He pointed to the delivery of the flu vaccine, as well as childhood vaccinations. It was also noted that Dr. Shahab had been involved in the delivery of the H1N1 vaccine.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 have to reinvent the wheel. We have done this before,鈥� said Merriman. 鈥淲hen the vaccine will be ready, we will be ready.鈥�
Scott Livingstone, CEO of Saskatchewan Health Authority, provided some further details about the vaccination process. For the pilot phase, the first recipients will be health care workers in intensive care units, emergency rooms, COVID-19 units in Regina General and Pasqua hospitals as well as well as at those SHA individuals working in their testing centres in Regina.聽
For phase one, the priority will be long term care and personal care home residents and staff, followed by health care workers, then into residents 80 and over, then over 75, and then over 70 on a sllding scale, and residents over the age of 50 living in northern Saskatchewan. During this phase vaccinations will be done in long term care homes and personal care homes.
For phase two, it is described as "widespread access" with distribution happening throughout the province and at vaccination sites. The vaccination flow would be to deliver the vaccine where people work and where they live similar to how they deliver the flu vaccine. The timing of phase two could be earlier if vaccines are made available earlier.
