Province ready to distribute vaccines as quickly as they come in: Moe

Once the COVID-19 vaccine is delivered to Saskatchewan, Premier Scott Moe says the province is ready to get it out to people immediately.

“We will distribute as many as we can receive as quickly as we can to people of the province,” Moe told media on Monday.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the federal government has secured a deal with Pfizer to bring up to 249,000 doses to Canada this month, with it coming as early as next week.

Moe said the Saskatchewan Health Authority will be holding a news conference Tuesday to reveal details surrounding the vaccine rollout, including who will get it first and — since the Pfizer vaccine needs to be kept in frigid temperatures — where it will be kept.

Moe said there are two places where the vaccine could be kept in Saskatchewan.

“This is the finish line. It is going to be a staggered finish line for sure but this is the finish line to a very serious pandemic that we have fought so hard, each of us as individuals across this province, to keep at bay. This is the finish line on when we can ultimately start to think about going back to life as we used to know it,” Moe said.

The vaccine will be distributed across Canada on a per-capita basis, something with which Moe agrees.

“It is the easiest, the quickest and likely the most fair way to distribute these vaccines across the nation in very quick order,” Moe said.

Moe said the province will used a phased approach, with Phase 1 focusing on health-care workers and high-risk individuals such as residents of long-term care facilities.

Moe said he doesn’t know how many doses Saskatchewan will receive this month, but the province is expecting around 180,000 during the first quarter of 2021. That will provide doses for 90,000 people.

But while the vaccine is viewed as a finish line, Moe said it’s too early to know when it might be possible to begin easing restrictions.

“As we know, they’re starting vaccination programs in the U.K. (and) they’re starting very quickly in the U.S. … We are going to see (when reopening) may be possible in other areas of the world because we aren’t at the very front of the line with procuring vaccines here in Canada,” Moe said.

“We may see in other areas of the world where they have access to a larger number of vaccines in their population before we do here in Saskatchewan or Canada and we’ll be watching how they reopen their economies.”