Saskatchewan set to expand COVID booster eligibility to those 50+

More Saskatchewan residents are about to become eligible for their second COVID-19 booster shot.

According to The Canadian Press, Health Minister Paul Merriman announced Monday that everyone 50 and over will be eligible to book an appointment for a fourth dose starting Tuesday. Appointments will be available at pharmacies and clinics.

Currently, only those 70 and over, people 50 and up who live in First Nation communities or in the Northern Service Administration District, and residents of long-term care, special care and personal care homes are eligible for a fourth dose.

Those people can get their second booster only if four months have passed since their first booster. The same time frame will be required under the expanded eligibility.

Severely immunocompromised individuals can get their fourth dose three months after their third shot.

As well, everyone in the province who is 12 and over is eligible to get their first booster shot, provided four months have passed since their second dose.

As of April 16 — the date at which last week’s epidemiological report was complete — 51.7 per cent of Saskatchewan residents aged 18 and up had got at least one booster shot. The week before, that percentage stood at 51.5, suggesting the demand had stagnated.

Between April 10 and April 16, there were 1,469 first booster doses administered in the province, roughly the same as the number (1,438) from the week before.

But the number of second boosters given in Saskatchewan rose from 557 in the week of April 3-9 to 8,077 over the following seven days. In total, there were 9,553 booster shots given April 10-16, up from 1,997 the week before.

The province expanded eligibility for second boosters on April 11 to those 70 and over and those 50 and up living in First Nations communities.

According to last week’s COVID update, unvaccinated people are five times more likely to end up in hospital with the virus and seven times more likely to die than those who have had three shots.

— With files from The Canadian Press