As of Wednesday, Saskatchewan residents 18 and over who haven’t received a COVID-19 vaccine yet, will have the opportunity to get the single dose Janssen vaccine from Johnson & Johnson. The province says the clinics in Regina, Saskatoon, Estevan, Prince Albert, Melfort, Swift Current, North Battleford and Lloydminster will have the vaccine available, first come first served. There will be no appointments for the Janssen vaccine, with an initial 2,500 doses available. Fourteen days after your shot, you will be considered fully vaccinated and can download your proof.
Chief Medical Health Officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab, says both the province and the Saskatchewan Health Authority have had requests for this one-shot vaccine, which is why it is being supplied. He hopes those who are vaccine hesitant will take advantage of it. Janssen is a viral vector vaccine as opposed to the new mRNA vaccines, like Moderna or Pfizer. Clinic locations and times are available on the SHA website. Boosters for those who receive the Janssen vaccine will be Pfizer or Moderna, as approved by Health Canada.
President of the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre, Marlo Pritchard, says no critical care surgeries were postponed or delayed last week, for the second week in a row. The SHA hit its first target of bringing back eligible staff to their original jobs. Pritchard notes that 50 per cent of those redeployed to support testing, contact tracing and other areas outside of ICUs and Acute Care, have returned to their normal areas of work. That means 129 of 374 services slowed have been resumed and 51 have partially resumed. The next goal is to have 75 per cent of eligible staff who have been redeployed back in their home positions by Friday, and 90 per cent by the end of the month.
Pritchard adds that over 759,300 rapid test kids have been shipped to schools, which is enough for every student under 12 to take a kit of five tests home. Over 560,000 are earmarked for delivery to Indigenous Services Canada for First Nations communities, and another 750,000 are for testing centres. The remaining supply for November of 1.4-million kits will begin to arrive next week, which means being able to re-supply the public distribution points including Chambers of Commerce, fire halls, participating malls, schools and SHA testing centres.
