Neck guard sales jump after Sask. hockey player slashed by skate
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More adult players are now investing in the protective equipment.
Experts are weighing in on when we could possibly see a COVID-19 vaccine made available for children under the age of 12.
Dr. Alex Wong, an infectious disease physician in Regina, believes a vaccine could be available sooner rather than later.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of pressure on the regulators — both Health Canada as well as the FDA (the Food and Drug Administration in the United States) as well as in Europe, as well as everywhere else — to push this forward very quickly once Pfizer submits their data,” Wong said. “We expect data for kids five to 11 probably by the end of September.
“With all the pressure from Delta (variant), we’re probably going to end up seeing it sooner, but nobody wants to be able to make that call definitively yet.”
About 20 per cent of COVID cases in the province in July were in kids under 12 who are currently too young to be vaccinated.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, COVID cases among kids under 12 are higher than they have ever been — which only adds a greater incentive for there to be a vaccine made available to children once more studies are done, Wong said.
“The FDA probably a few weeks ago asked Pfizer — who are the lead company, basically, in terms of the timing of their vaccine — to actually include more kids in their study because they wanted to try to tease out as to whether or not there was any meaningful safety signal,” Wong said.
“The FDA has asked for this additional sort of volume of people to try to help tease out whether or not there was a safety concern.”
When the school year starts, Wong says he anticipates there to be a lot of kids — including his own — who will still be wearing masks in certain settings.
“I’ve got a kid that’s starting kindergarten,” Wong said. “It has to happen.”
Wednesday’s COVID update
The province reported 90 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday.
The new cases were in the far northeast (24), Saskatoon (22), north-central (seven), Regina (five), southeast (five), northwest (four), northeast (four), southwest (four), far north-central (three), central-east (three), central-west (two), south-central (two) and far northwest (one) zones.
The hometowns of four cases are pending.
Two Saskatchewan residents who tested positive out of province were added to the Saskatchewan total, which now stands at 50,771 reported cases since March of 2020.
There were 44 recoveries reported Wednesday, increasing the province’s total to date to 49,505. There are 682 active cases in Saskatchewan, the highest that number has been since it was 711 on June 21.
There are 65 COVID patients in Saskatchewan hospitals, including 15 in intensive care. Hospitalizations due to COVID haven’t that high in the province since there were 65 reported on July 5.
There were 1,912 doses of COVID vaccine administered in Saskatchewan in the last reporting period, including 1,370 second doses. To date, 668,926 people have received both doses and 1,436,522 total shots have been given.