Merriman says AstraZeneca clinics for eligible recipients set for Regina this weekend

Drive-through clinics are set to open this weekend in Regina for select people to receive the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

As cases of COVID-19 and variants are concentrated in Regina, the province is sending more than 15,000 doses of vaccine to the city.

On Friday, Health Minister Paul Merriman gave further detail to Gormley on how the province will administer the shots. The Saskatchewan Health Authority also provided an update.

On Sunday, there will be a drive-through clinic at Evraz Place for health-care workers deemed eligible under Phase 1 of the province’s vaccination plan. There are roughly 10,000 such workers, Merriman said.

The clinic, which isn’t open to the public, will be a trial run for the process that will start the next day for the public.

On Monday, a pilot drive-through immunization clinic will be held at Evraz Place for only those residents who are aged 64 as well as Phase 1 health-care workers.

According to the Saskatchewan Health Authority, people can’t pre-book an appointment for the drive-through clinics.

The site will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Again, only those whose birthdates are between March 16, 1956 and March 15, 1957 will be eligible that day.

The site will begin to open up for other ages, in reverse order from oldest to youngest, in subsequent days.

“This was the easiest way of doing it and because we’ve had some higher numbers in Regina, we really want to focus our vaccine efforts into there, to make sure that we can get as many people vaccinated as possible,” Merriman said.

Merriman also discussed vaccine bookings.

As of 11 a.m. Friday, Saskatchewan’s new booking system had set up appointments for 10,636 people aged 80 and over. That included 5,616 that were made Friday.

Since the system launched Thursday at 8 a.m., 8,552 appointments were made online and 2,084 were booked through the phone.

According to the Saskatchewan Health Authority, issues that people had experienced Thursday trying to call using their cellphones had been resolved.

People aged 85 and older were able to make bookings starting Thursday and the province estimates there are about 13,000 residents in that age group. Many have already been vaccinated in mobile clinics and care homes, Merriman said.

As of 8 a.m. Friday, residents 80 and older became eligible to make an appointment.

Merriman said clinics will be made available to younger people over the next few days as long as the booking system does not become overwhelmed.

“We’ve got 125 (vaccination) sites that will be open and we’ve got 150,000 appointments that can be made over the next few days,” he said.