With Phase One of the provincial vaccine delivery plan well underway, many residents have questions about how vaccine clinics are currently delivering immunization to priority populations.
The following details are from the Saskatchewan Health Authority, explaining how Phase One of the plan is being delivered.
Phase One is currently targeting priority populations, including long-term care residents, health care workers, people in the age category of 70 years or older, and people in northern communities aged 50 years or older.
Individuals eligible for a Phase One immunization will be contacted directly to book an appointment at a vaccine clinic near them. There is no list or requirement for individuals to pre-register for the vaccine.
People in the 70-plus age group living independently in the community will be contacted directly with vaccine information when possible, and through local media and social media when direct contact is not possible.
For those who become eligible for their vaccine during Phase One but do not receive it before Phase Two begins, they will maintain their eligibility and can be vaccinated in Phase Two.
Currently, the vaccine clinic in Moose Jaw is only operating by appointment with Phase One priority individuals. When Phase Two begins, Moose Jaw will have a mass immunization clinic and a drive-through immunization clinic.
Both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine must be used within six hours of puncturing vials, so the SHA shared the work standard protocol in place for when health care workers have unallocated doses approaching expiry that cannot be put back into storage.
Healthcare workers on the immunization teams are to pull forward people in the current priority phase who are already booked to receive a vaccine, moving them ahead in the queue.
If no one is available, the team will contact other current priority phase individuals who may be on standby and give them the option to come in immediately for vaccination.
If that process is unsuccessful, the healthcare workers on the immunization team may deliver vaccines to each other.
If there are still additional doses available, the team may offer the vaccine to a readily available candidate, with priority given to individuals in the current phase.
A statement from the SHA said that this protocol was put into motion in Moose Jaw, after immunizations began near the end of February.
Extra doses pulled from supplied Pfizer vaccine vials in Moose Jaw were “recently given to health care workers and those over the age of 70; both groups identified as part of Phase One of the vaccination plan.”
For more information on the vaccine delivery plan, visit saskatchewan.ca/COVID19.
