Moe nixes notion of COVID vaccination lottery

Anyone looking to strike it rich in a lottery in Saskatchewan will have to pin their hopes on Lotto 6/49 or Lotto Max.

Premier Scott Moe reiterated Tuesday that the province will not hold a lottery to motivate people to get COVID-19 vaccinations.

Alberta and Manitoba have announced lotteries in recent days in hopes of increasing vaccination uptake among their residents, but Moe said some form of incentive in Saskatchewan was “not in consideration at this point in time.”

“The fact is this: In this part of the world, you’re already winning by just getting vaccinated and having the opportunity to get vaccinated,” Moe said during a media conference. “In this province, 92 per cent of our new COVID cases are people that for some reason or another are not vaccinated at this point in time — and there’s multiple reasons why that might be. Eighty-two per cent of our hospitalizations are people that are not vaccinated.

“So here’s what you win (with a vaccination): You get to protect yourself from COVID, and those numbers show that vaccines do work and they work very well. You get to protect your family, your friends, your loved ones and everyone around you from this COVID virus.

“If you like to gamble, then I would suggest to you don’t get your shot — (but) the prize is not what you think it is.”

Saskatchewan’s first-dose vaccination numbers have hit a lull of late, especially among people under the age of 40. To address that, the Saskatchewan Health Authority introduced a new strategy Tuesday that will involve things like pop-up clinics and fast-pass lanes at drive-thrus to increase access to vaccinations.

Moe hoped people would view getting a shot as “just the right thing to do” rather than looking to receive cash or prizes for doing so. Getting vaccinated, he said, would allow the government to remove public health measures and allow the province to reopen.

“Health, peace of mind, a safer province, safer communities and the return to things as we once knew them, those are pretty great prizes in my mind,” Moe said. “And all we need to do is go out, each of us, and get vaccinated and when everyone does, we get to win all of those prizes.

“We’ve already had nearly 700,000 very lucky winners in this province who went out and got their first shot. We did that without having a lottery and we still have plenty more vaccines left for anyone else that would make that choice.”

As of Tuesday, 910,322 doses of COVID vaccines had been administered in Saskatchewan. That included 692,810 first shots and 217,512 second shots.

Moe pointed out it was six months ago Tuesday that the first COVID vaccination was done in Saskatchewan.

“It took nearly three months to get to 100,000 shots in this province, but today, over 900,000 have been administered in the province,” he said. “That’s more than 800,000 shots in the last three months by comparison.”

Everyone 12 and over is eligible to get a first dose in Saskatchewan. As of Tuesday, 67 per cent of people in that age group had got their first shot.

Second doses currently are available to those aged 50 and over or to people who got their first shot on or before April 15. The eligibility for second doses is to drop Thursday to include people 45 and over or individuals who got their first dose on or before May 1.