AstraZeneca drive-thru to open in Regina on Sunday

For anyone who has been waiting to get their second dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, that’s all Regina’s drive-thru clinic will have starting Sunday.

Laveena Tratch, the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s vaccine chief for Regina’s Integrated Health Incident Command, was on the Greg Morgan Morning Show on Thursday.

She gave some insight into what the vaccine rollout will look like for the next week.

“Until Saturday, our clinics are Pfizer clinics. Beginning on Sunday, we will be running primarily AstraZeneca for a few days to get those individuals who received their first dose of AstraZeneca and want that as their second dose,” Tratch said.

“It’s important to go to the SHA website. It will identify what brand of vaccines will be at different clinics.”

When it comes to people getting their second doses, Tratch says some people who got a first dose of AstraZeneca have opted to get Pfizer as their second dose after it was confirmed on Tuesday that mixing vaccines was safe.

If AstraZeneca was the first dose people received and they want to get something different, they’ll be able to book something different at other clinics around the province.

Derek Miller, the SHA’s executive director of infrastructure management, says other AstraZeneca-specific clinics will be sprouting up frequently over the next few weeks.

“We’re going to be opening up clinics in other places — probably in Saskatoon — and then potentially other places in the province as we go forward into the days and weeks ahead,” Miller said.

“We are going to continuously monitor what the demand is looking like and and we want to move through this as quickly as we can.”

Currently, anyone 65 years of age and older or who got their first dose on or before March 22 is able to get their second dose.

Anyone looking at booking a vaccination appointment can do so by clicking here.