Pharmacies ready to take advantage of new vaccine storage rules

New rules around the way COVID-19 vaccinations are stored aren’t just welcomed by pharmacies across Saskatchewan, they also may increase the number of shots those pharmacies are able to give on a day-to-day basis.

On Wednesday, Health Canada said the Pfizer-BioNTech doses could now be stored at a typical refrigeration temperature for quite a bit longer than originally anticipated.

It can now be stored at temperatures between 2 C and 8 C. The vaccine was being transported with temperatures around -60 C to -80 C throughout the country.

Additionally, instead of the vaccine having to be used within five days, Wednesday’s changes expanded that rule up to one full month.

All of these changes will impact pharmacies on the ground level, according to Dawn Martin, CEO of the Pharmacy Association of Saskatchewan.

“From our perspective, it’s starting up well,” Martin said during Thursday’s Brent Loucks Morning Show. “We’ve got lots of pharmacies providing COVID vaccinations.

“Certainly, like anything of this nature, there’s been that bump here and there — mostly about supply — and demand is high. So our pharmacists are busy out there.”

One of those “bumps” Martin referred to are some individuals calling and trying to book their doses ahead of time, before they are actually eligible for their first and, now, second doses.

Martin said second doses will fall a lot to the pharmacies, but those changes announced Wednesday will help that situation.

“A lot of (those bumps in the road have) to do with the nature of the vaccine with Pfizer and some of the intensity around having to have that dose in someone’s arm in five days … That’s changing right now, so that will help take some pressure off,” she said.

“We might see some of those numbers go up as pharmacies have the ability to store and be able to do it over a longer period of time.

“The whole system is learning, across countries and Canada, around these vaccines and their stability. This is really great news for pharmacies in particular too, because not a lot of pharmacies have freezer capacity of that nature. Most of them have medical refrigeration … This is great news.”

When it comes to the actual allocation of these doses, 350 out of 418 pharmacies in Saskatchewan are participating in the delivery of vaccines. Martin said on average, each pharmacy usually does about 100 doses per day.

The number of shots given depend on the size and capacity of each individual pharmacy, with 60 administered a day on the low end and up to 200 at some of the larger locations.