More Sask. vaccinations begin Monday after arrival of 4,900 doses of Moderna vaccine

The Saskatchewan government says health-care workers and people who live in long-term care homes in the far north will begin to be immunized on Monday.

The news comes after 4,900 doses of the Moderna vaccine arrived in the province last week. The new doses will be heading to the Far North West region, which includes Ile-a-la-Crosse, Beauval and La Loche, as well as the Far North Central Region, which includes Uranium City, Fond du Lac and Stony Rapids.

Chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab said the northern regions were being given priority due to high case numbers in many northern communities. A community outbreak in Ile-a-la-Crosse was declared on Dec. 23 and La Loche previously had the largest outbreak of COVID-19 in an Indigenous community. 

Derek Keller, executive director of primary health care for the Athabasca Health Authority, said the far north central region will be receiving its first 710 doses on Wednesday. Another 1,290 doses will arrive in the next couple of weeks, he said.

Because the Moderna vaccine requires two shots, these 2,000 doses will vaccinate 1,000 people in the region.

The vaccine will arrive in some communities on Friday and the health authority will be flying into the province's most northerly communities — Camsell Portage and Uranium City — on Monday, Jan. 11. 

Long-term care residents, health-care workers and the oldest people in the communities will be prioritized.

'The start to the end of this pandemic'

The Moderna vaccine can be frozen until use, but a vial needs to be used within six hours once it's punctured. There are 10 doses in a vial, Keller said.

This means people will need to be booked in groups to receive the vaccine, he said.

"Once we've punctured that vial, we have to use those other nine doses within six hours, so we have to do a fair bit of planning and organization with that to ensure that we aren't wasting, because, again, if we waste even one dose, that means one person cannot get their vaccine this go around."

He said some people may have to wait a day or two until they have a large enough group to use one vial.

Keller said the general feeling about the arrival of the vaccine is positive.

"Some people … are very excited to get this vaccine," he said. "It's the start to the end of this pandemic. And again, there's still some of the population that is hesitant about the vaccine. It's up to us to educate everybody as to the benefits."

Andrew Will, vice president of infrastructure, information and support with the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), said in a statement that the SHA is working with provincial and northern partners to ensure safe delivery of both the Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna vaccines.

"Local work on delivery of these vaccines to specific locations and populations in Prince Albert and northern communities continues," Will said in the statement. "Further details of the roll out plan specific to this region of the province will be provided when it is available."

More doses expected for Saskatoon and Prince Albert

As of Sunday, a total of 3,866 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine had already been given to health-care workers in Regina and Saskatoon.

At a previous news conference, Health Minister Paul Merriman said Saskatoon and Prince Albert are expected to receive more doses of the Pfizer vaccine sometime this week.

While the Moderna vaccine does not need to be refrigerated at extremely low temperatures, the Pfizer vaccine must be kept at roughly -70 C. As a result, five special freezers for the Pfizer vaccine have been distributed between Regina, Saskatoon and Prince Albert.

Dr. Shahab said it was difficult to distribute the vaccine across Northern Saskatchewan due to the large distances involved. Officials were in contact with local leadership to help organize the vaccine rollout.

Minister Merriman said he was hoping to get more details from the federal government on exactly how many doses the province will receive each week.

While Merriman said the numbers of vaccines received in Saskatchewan have been small so far, he expected the federal government to begin distributing much larger numbers of the vaccine early in the new year.

As of Sunday, 238 new cases of COVID-19 were reported across the province, with 152 people in hospital.