Health minister shares more detail on vaccine rollout

Saskatchewan Health Minister Paul Merriman is sharing more details about the province’s vaccine rollout plan.

In an interview with Gormley on Thursday, Merriman answered a variety of questions.

He covered the logistics of how the Pfizer vaccine will be rolled out.

That particular vaccine, which has been approved by Health Canada and which is expected to arrive in Saskatchewan by next Tuesday, needs to be kept at ultra-cold temperatures.

Because of that, it will likely be used mostly in larger population centres, ranging in size from Saskatoon and Regina to smaller communities like Swift Current and Yorkton.

That will depend on when Health Canada approves the Moderna vaccine, which can be stored at higher temperatures than the Pfizer vaccine.

“It’s so much easier to move the Moderna around at -20 C that we’re going to focus most of that on the smaller centres and into rural, depending when the vaccines get here and when we can get them out. That will determine how fast we can get them out to the smaller centres, to rural Saskatchewan and the remote north,” Merriman explained.

Once shipped, the Pfizer vaccine takes some time before it can be injected.

“There is a thawing time. We can’t put something that’s at an ultra-low temperature into somebody’s body; it could have an adverse effect. I believes it’s a two- to three-day process of bringing the temperature down to a normal temperature of what a vaccine is administrated at. Then it would go directly into someone’s arm,” he said.

While there are plenty of logistics to keep in mind, Merriman is optimistic about the rollout, and thinks that things are on the right track.

“The good news is the vaccines are arriving a lot sooner than we thought. We were anticipating these coming in the middle of the first quarter (of 2021), and now they’re arriving within the next 10 days. This is very good news to be able to speed up this process,” he said.

Another step to attempt to speed up distribution will be moving workers from different areas of the government to help with the rollout.

The Public Service Commission, which encompasses employees from different ministries, will be contributing people to help with tasks like data entry.

“We’ve taken a look at the scope of each individual classification of employee to make sure that each employee is able to maximize their scope … Basically, it’s all hands on deck on this to make sure that we can get this vaccine out as soon as possible,” Merriman said.

Merriman spoke optimistically about the future of the province as the vaccine program begins.

“Hopefully, this time next year, we can get back to a normal sense of rhythm and a normal sense of life,” he said.