Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look back at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list ...
The Saskatchewan Health Authority says if the federal government doesn’t step up distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, the province could run out of doses in the short term.
SHA briefing documents are firing another shot at the federal government for its vaccine distribution. The SHA says it is inoculating more people, and improved processes are speeding up the rollout. But that means the province may run out of doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
“We anticipate as we continue to ramp up the doses delivered per day, we will experience shortages going forward and may run out before the next allocations,” Derek Miller, the executive director of Infrastructure, Information and Support for the SHA, said Thursday during a briefing with reporters.
Health Minister Paul Merriman has criticized the feds multiple times for not providing vaccine doses quickly enough to the provinces.
In an updated document outlining the province’s immunization campaign and delivery plan, the SHA says the “currently planned” federal allocations will leave Saskatchewan 50 per cent short of enough doses to fully immunize high-priority populations in the first phase of the vaccine roll-out.
That includes about 190,000 people, including long-term and personal care home residents and staff, prioritized health-care workers, seniors 70 years old and up, and residents of the north or remote regions that are 50 years old and up.
When asked about the implications of this, SHA CEO Scott Livingstone said it’s mostly due to the fact the vaccinations require a second shot, and so second shots for some in that group could come a little later. Livingstone said it won’t affect the vaccination plan otherwise.
In a list of key challenges the program is facing, the SHA mentions “limited, variable and unpredictable allocations.” For the rollout to be most effective, the SHA says it needs “stable, predictable and large volume allocations” to ensure rapid delivery.
Other challenges include the difficulty of delivering to high-risk populations in remote locations, severe winter weather making delivery more difficult, the “time-intensive consent process” and “high-volume booking processes,” and the strain put on the system by high COVID case numbers and hospitalizations.
Echoing comments Dr. Saqib Shahab made on Gormley on Thursday morning, the SHA is also stressing the need for “the public to remain vigilant,” warning that the health-care system is at its most fragile point so far in the pandemic.
“These are the only tools we have collectively that can bring numbers down, and of course the other option comes at significant cost, especially if it has to be in place for a long period of time,” said Shahab.
The “other option” Shahab mentioned is more public health restrictions, and he repeated on Thursday those could have to be looked at if case numbers don’t start to go down.
Livingstone agreed, adding his own pleas to Shahab’s Thursday afternoon.
“We need the public, more than ever, to double-down on their efforts to help support the system to be able to deliver for the people of this province,” said Livingstone.
On Thursday Saskatchewan hit another new high for people in hospital with COVID, at 206, and Livingstone said Saskatchewan’s ICUs are at 95 per cent capacity between COVID and non-COVID patients.
Livingstone explained the health system can double ICU capacity with the work they’ve already done, but the bigger challenge is bringing in the labour pool needed.
Miller noted the 1,393 doses administered on Wednesday represented the highest single-day total so far, and the figure would be higher if not for the severe weather hampering the effort. Over the last week the province is averaging fewer than 1,000 doses administered each day.
More details on the vaccination program can be found below.
Modelling numbers
The SHA also produced modelling data showing how cases in the province have been trending.
Between Jan. 4 and Jan. 10, there were 18 outbreaks reported. The definition of an outbreak is two or more cases in a non-household setting.
Six were in workplaces, three were in communal living settings such as retirement homes, three were in restaurants or bars and two were in special-care homes. There also was one outbreak declared after a gathering at a house.
In the same time period, there were 1,423 exposures with a pending cause and 496 that remain unknown.
There were 125 exposures in households, 65 in social settings, 43 among health-care workers, 40 in health-care settings, 29 in workplaces, 14 in public facilities, eight in mass gatherings and four that were associated with domestic travel.
There weren’t any exposures linked to international travel, communal living settings or schools. Students, of course, had been learning remotely from before the Christmas break until this week.
Over a seven-day stretch that ended Wednesday, Saskatchewan had recorded 2,193 new cases. That translated to 189 new cases per 100,000 population, which was the second-highest such figure in Canada behind Quebec (197).
The numbers also show Saskatchewan has the highest active case rate per 100,000 in Canada.
More details on the SHA’s modelling can be found below.
