Vaccine supplies will be limited until April, says Dr. Shahab

By Brian Zinchuk, Local Journalism Initiative reporter, Estevan Mercury

Dec 30, 2020

Regina– New COVID-19 cases have come down, but that could be due, in part, to fewer people getting tested over the holidays. Vaccinations are rolling out, but it’s going to be several months before they are really widespread in distribution.

Those were some of the messages brought forward by Health Minister Paul Merriman and Saskatchewan Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab on Dec. 30 as they provided an update on the COVID-19 pandemic in one of their regular briefings from the Legislature in Regina. 

Merriman said, “Our new case numbers and Saskatchewan has continued to drop over the past week. This may be partially due to fewer people getting tested over the Christmas holiday. But the new case numbers have definitely been trending in the right direction, over the past couple of weeks. On December 12, the seven-day average for new cases peaked at 292. Today the seven-day average is down to just over half that number at 152, and the number of active cases have dropped below 3,000, for the first time since November 24. These case numbers are still much higher than we would like, but they are trending in the right direction. 

“The restrictions that we have in place are working,” he said, thanking everyone in Saskatchewan for continuing to follow all of the public health orders and guidelines, particularly over the holiday season.

On that day, Saskatchewan reported 147 new COVID-19 cases, three deaths, 151 people in hospital and 378 recoveries.

Merriman hinted the federal government should let the province know more about coming vaccine quantities, saying, “Our vaccination program has been going well so far. These are still relatively small numbers of vaccines that we have received from the federal government. We expect the federal government to begin receiving and distributing much larger numbers of vaccines, certainly in the new year. We’re trying to get a clear indication from the federal government, the number of vaccines they will be sending us each week, so we can better plan for the next steps in our distribution process. This is a challenging vaccination program to put together, given the complexity. The scale, and the differences in storage and transportation required for the different kinds of vaccines; Saskatchewan is absolutely prepared to meet this challenge. But we need the federal government to provide more clarity, than they have been about the numbers of vaccine doses we will receive over the next few weeks.”

Shahab said Saskatchewan has  just finished the second week of vaccinations. In Regina, 1,834 vaccines have been administered, of the 1,950 received. The remainder will be focused on the staff at two long-term care homes in Regina. In Saskatoon, 3,900 doses were delivered initially on Dec. 21, followed by 975 doses this week, a total of which 1,108 have been administered to date. Prince Albert will receive its initial 3,900 doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Jan. 4. 

Going forward, 6,825 Pfizer doses are expected to arrive each week, on Jan. 11, 18 and 25. Saskatchewan has five ultra-low temperature freezers capable of the -70 C needed to store the Pfizer vaccine, and another four ultra-low temperature freezers are expected, to be used throughout Saskatchewan. This will allow that vaccine to be used for health care workers, long-term and personal care residents in more geographic areas. 

The Moderna vaccine is expected to arrive Dec. 31, with 4,900 doses. These will be allocated to the far north central and far north west regions, which had the highest “attack rates” in the province. Half of the initial does will be held during the initial rollout as logistics are rolled out. If things pan out with additional shipments, those doses may be released instead of being held as a booster shot, 28 days later. 

Moderna vaccinations are anticipated to begin the weeks of Jan. 4 and Jan. 11, focusing on long-term care residents, personal care home residents, the staff associated with those facilities, and health care workers dealing with COVID-19 wards, testing and assessment. 

Shahab noted the provinces expectations of Moderna vaccine volumes are limited until April. “The Pfizer supply is more stable, and we are getting weekly allocations of Pfizer,” he said. “Moderna, we are getting bi-weekly shipments of smaller amounts over January and February, and then we will get the bulk of them within March.”

Those first two months may see 3,000 to 5,000 doses per shipment until March, he said, but that is subject to change. The Moderna vaccine is easier to transport, especially for the far north. 

For the general public, Shahab said supplies of the vaccines are very limited until April, when there will be more of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine available. AstraZeneca’s vaccine was approved on Dec. 30 in the United Kingdom, and Canada has ordered that, as well. Canada has entered into negotiations with seven manufacturers. 

Come April, he said, “That’s when younger age groups and with underlying health conditions initially and then to the general population, I would estimate, June, July onwards.”

Saskatchewan is still seeing a test positive rate between seven and nine per cent, he said, noting there is still a bit of concern regarding that. Hospitalizations have remained stable, but they will watch in January for an increase. 

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So far, Saskatchewan has not seen any instances of the United Kingdom variant of COVID-19. Shahab said the six instances in Canada have all been linked to directly to travel or someone who has travelled. If they were being discovered with no links, that would be more concerning. He noted the federal government is requiring a two-week quarantine and prior to departing for Canada, a COVID-19 test may be required.