Moe ‘bullish’ on vaccination plan as it prepares to begin

The pilot program to give some of Saskatchewan’s health-care workers the COVID-19 vaccine is set to begin.

Premier Scott Moe confirmed to Gormley on Tuesday that doses of the Pfizer vaccine are to arrive in Regina by air later in the day or in the evening. The vaccinations of 1,950 health-care workers are to commence Tuesday evening at Regina’s General Hospital.

“The turnaround time will be very rapid with this pilot program and very rapid once we start receiving a regular supply of the vaccines,” Moe said. “We’re hoping (that will happen) later in December but for certain by the first week of January.”

The Saskatchewan government laid out its vaccine distribution plan Dec. 9, the first feature of which is the pilot program. In it, vaccinations will be given to health-care workers who are providing direct care to COVID patients.

After that, the first phase is expected to start later in December and continue through the first quarter of 2021.

That phase is to focus on groups that are at a higher risk of exposure or of serious illness, including health-care workers, elderly residents in care homes, seniors over the age of 80, and residents in remote and northern communities.

Pfizer’s vaccine already has been approved by Health Canada, with Moderna’s vaccine expected to get approval soon. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada had signed a contract to receive up to 168,000 doses of Moderna’s vaccine before the end of December.

In Saskatchewan, having two vaccines on hand will allow the provincial government to attain its goal of inoculating 101,000 people in the first quarter of 2021.

“That will get us a long ways through many of our health-care workers, our folks in long-term care homes (and) those that may be immunocompromised or elderly,” Moe said.

“What we are hopeful for, and what I’m personally hopeful for, is that there are two other vaccine companies that are in the queue and doing work with Health Canada as we speak; I believe it’s AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. As those come on stream, I’m hopeful that that 101,000 number will start to push up in the first quarter.”

That, Moe said, will allow the province to get things back to normal sooner rather than later.

“I’m bullish on where we’re going finally with our vaccination program here in Canada and I can say that as soon as we receive these doses, we will turn around and make them available for Saskatchewan people,” he said.

In preparation for the arrival of the vaccine, the Saskatchewan Health Authority staged a dry run Monday at the General.

The authority used the dry run as a teaching tool to get teams ready for the first vaccinations as well as those that will follow.

“Working collaboratively, the Vaccine Pilot team and RGH operational team used a mock-vaccine that replicated the packaging and temperature of the actual Pfizer vaccine, which arrives packed in dry ice,” the SHA said in a media release. “From entry to the hospital through to storage of the vaccine, the dry run required multiple teams across multiple divisions to run through the process, evaluate their findings and refine the process.

“After completing and reviewing the dry run, the COVID-19 Vaccine Pilot team was able to find opportunities for improvement, to minimize risks and maximize efficiencies that will contribute to the safe delivery and distribution of the first COVID-19 vaccine. Their efforts will become part of the Work Standard that will be used by all facilities throughout the province that will handle the vaccine in the future.”

But the vaccine won’t be available to all members of the population immediately, so the government has instituted public health measures to limit the possible spread of COVID-19.

Those include new ones introduced Monday that no doubt will affect Christmas celebrations in the province.

For instance, private indoor gatherings are to include only people from the same household and the limit on outdoor gatherings was reduced from 30 people to 10.

Moe admitted no one — “including myself (and) including Dr. (Saqib) Shahab,” the premier added, referring to the chief medical health officer — likes the measures, but they’re necessary if the province is to bring down the numbers of new and active cases.

“The measures that we put in on Nov. 27 have been effective and we have slowed the rate of increase,” Moe said. “In fact, our seven-day rolling average (Monday) was the lowest that it has been since Nov. 28.

“The measures are working. What this will do is just slow things down a little bit more, allow us to drop those numbers and preserve that capacity not only in our health-care system but put us in the best possible opportunity here as we enter the finish area of this long conversation.”