Province could tweak eligibility as vaccinations continue

As COVID-19 vaccinations continue in Saskatchewan, Premier Scott Moe said conversations have started on possibly adding in more priority groups soon.

“We are having an active conversation with Dr. (Saqib) Shahab and others in public health as to, ‘Should we now look at prioritizing those who would be at highest risk of contracting COVID, at least to a degree?’ ” Moe said Monday.

However, that wouldn’t kick in until 40-year-olds have the chance to get vaccinated. Moe said that’s because it’s people 40 and up who have the worst outcomes from COVID-19.

Moe admitted it is a shift for the government.

“I think it really does address, in many ways, what the broader conversation has been in this country and in this province throughout our vaccination process,” said Moe.

He couldn’t say exactly who could be prioritized, saying that’s part of the conversation officials are having now. Moe said they’ve heard from people working in larger environments with more people, and they would be looking there.

Health Minister Paul Merriman mentioned large employers, schools or other areas as possibilities.

Moe said government officials will let people know as soon as they make those decisions.

The province’s goal is still to get as many people vaccinated as soon as possible, but that could be made difficult as vaccine shipments seem to have slowed.

Merriman said officials don’t know when they’re going to get more AstraZeneca vaccine and the province hasn’t heard anything about Moderna past next week — a shipment that had been delayed twice and then cut in half.

“Even if we could get another 120,000 in May, that would meet our targets for sure, but we haven’t got any indication from the federal government on Moderna,” said Merriman.

Merriman said if health officials have any other delayed or split shipments, it could have an impact on the province’s timeline, but also on people actually being able to be vaccinated.

There is good news on the Pfizer front, as Merriman said the allocation has been increased for Saskatchewan.

According to Merriman, the big problem right now is the lack of vaccine. He said the Saskatchewan Health Authority has a huge capacity to get the vaccine out and it has just started to tap into the pharmacies.

“If we could get 100,000 vaccines a week, we could do that easily within our system right now. And that would be 10 per cent of the population every week,” said Merriman.

Other provinces have decided to give the AstraZeneca vaccine to people between 40 and 55 years old, even though new recommendations haven’t come from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization yet. Saskatchewan hasn’t made a decision on that, said Merriman.

But Merriman said the province doesn’t have a lot of AstraZeneca on hand anyway.

“We have the majority of it out in arms and in drive-throughs and appointments across the (province),” he said. “Everything we have left over for AstraZeneca is pretty much booked in already for somebody that is over the age of 55.”