Province to release second phase of vaccination plan Tuesday

In December, the province released a broad-strokes plan on the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, but on Tuesday, the minister of health is expected to release more details on the second phase of vaccinations — when most of the province will become eligible for a shot.

On Monday, after an address to the Municipalities of Saskatchewan virtual convention, Premier Scott Moe revealed a few of the details in the plan.

He said the second phase will be segmented by age with some small allowances for some priority groups.

“By and large, age has been the largest factor with respect to having poor outcomes when it comes to contracting COVID-19,” said Moe.

This summer, when the second phase is expected to have been long underway, Moe said the federal government is expecting to get enough vaccine to be able to provide about 10,000 doses a day to Saskatchewan.

Moe said that’s a lot to administer.

“In order to achieve those types of vaccination numbers, we most certainly will need — not only everyone in public health and the (Saskatchewan Health Authority) — but we’ll need everyone who is able to deliver these vaccines across the province,” said Moe.

He said that could mean pharmacists getting involved, as well as others like first responders like fire departments and paramedics, and private groups with the ability to deliver vaccinations. Moe said the health authority is already reaching out to those groups.

Before the second phase, the health authority needs to get through the first phase of vaccinations, but the premier said with about 380,000 doses to be administered in that phase, the province is only about 10 per cent done.

“We are a ways away from entering into Phase 2 or a mass vaccination effort,” said Moe.

For any of this to be able to move ahead, the province needs vaccine doses. The delivery through the federal government had slowed to a trickle recently and Moe wants it to pick up.

Moe talked about the prime minister continuing to say the country is expecting six million doses by the end of the year’s first quarter. But Moe said not even Saskatchewan’s share of that many doses will get the province through Phase 1.

“We’ll have to wait and see. We’re most certainly ready in the province to deliver them as we receive them,” said Moe.

Moe said Canada is behind in a lot of areas when it comes to the vaccine, but he said he takes no pleasure in pointing that out.

“I don’t want to be critical of the federal government on this topic — there’s lots of other opportunities for me to be critical of the federal government. I want them to succeed in their procurement of vaccines in a timely fashion because that is all of our path out of this pandemic,” said Moe.

The second phase was tentatively set to start in April and Moe said he hopes it doesn’t have to be pushed back.

NDP sends letter to health minister

Saskatchewan’s NDP has been calling for a clearer plan to be set out on COVID vaccinations for a while, and now that it’s on the way, the party has some ideas of what should be in it.

NDP Health Critic Vicki Mowat sent a letter to Health Minister Paul Merriman.

It tells the minister she expects to see several things in the plan, including a clear breakdown of who will be eligible for the vaccine and when.

The letter also calls for more information around the role pharmacists will play and clarity on the timing of the second shot.

Mowat also wants a robust vaccine advocacy campaign across the province.

And for the first phase, Mowat she wants to see a plan for improving communication with the elderly and vulnerable groups who are eligible for vaccinations now.