Vaccination process off to slow start in Saskatchewan

More than two-thirds of the COVID-19 vaccine doses delivered to Saskatchewan have yet to be administered.

According to the federal government’s COVID-19 tracker as of Wednesday morning, 4,254 of the 13,675 doses delivered to the province have been administered, or 31.1 per cent.

University of Toronto student Jean-Paul Soucy founded the COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group, which is also tracking the pace of vaccinations. He joined Gormley on Wednesday and said it’s been a slow rollout across Canada to start, compared to other countries.

“It looks like things are getting better. I’m confident things are going to get better but we have had a slow rollout in all the provinces,” said Soucy.

Nationwide, 40.1 per cent of delivered doses have been administered, vaccinating 0.457 per cent of the population.

Soucy said Canada needs to get the shot in as many arms as possible, with a priority placed on long-term care homes.

“Even just that first dose is going to give partial immunity until you get that second dose. I think it’s really important that we especially get those out in long-term care homes because that’s going to actually cut down on the mortality we see from this disease,” said Soucy.

On Tuesday, the first Moderna vaccines were provided to long-term care residents and health providers in Ile-a-la-Crosse and La Loche in Saskatchewan’s far north. The province also expects another shipment of vaccines to arrive in Prince Albert this week, to be used in long-term care homes.

Soucy said Canada can look to Israel to find ways to speed up the vaccination process. The country went full-steam ahead, vaccinating 15 per cent of its population in two weeks. Soucy called the Israel strategy “controlled chaos.”

“You hear about drive-through vaccinations and all sorts of stuff that’s being done, running clinics 24/7. I think that’s what we’re going to start to need to think about,” said Soucy.