Starting March 31st at 8 a.m. Saskatchewan residents 60 years of age and older will be eligible to book appointments to receive the COVID-19 vaccine along with all remaining phase one health care workers and people deemed clinically extremely vulnerable who have received and eligibility letter. In the Northern Saskatchewan Administration District, the eligibility criteria remains at 50 years of age and older.
While those who are included in the eligible age groupings can book appointments either online or over the phone health care workers and those identified as extremely vulnerable must use the telephone call in line as they will need to verify their eligibility. The remaining phase-one health care workers includes home-care workers, operating room staff, vaccination teams, dialysis and radiology technicians among other critical care staff.
Meanwhile Saskatchewan doctors want new strategies to combat the COVID-19 variants. Dr. Anne Huang, a former deputy medical health officer with the Saskatchewan Health Authority equated the outbreaks in Regina and now Moose Jaw, to wildfires. Dr. Huang believes a “ring vaccination” strategy to contain it. “It’s the same idea of starving the oxygen of a rapidly advancing forest fire with a fire break by cutting clearance in the forest,” Dr. Huang said. Dr. Shahab and Premier Moe however are staying with the status quo for the city of Moose Jaw. People in Moose Jaw, Shahab said, need to look at what is happening in Regina and in their own city and choose to emulate the safety measures there. Mayor Fraser Tolmie is asking Moose Jaw residents to be extra vigilant in light of increasing COVID-19 cases in the city and the presence of variants of concern. The mayor said the city is having “open conversations” with public health officials and the provincial government regarding additional restrictions. The Premier said today that he continues to have faith in the people of Moose Jaw to do what they need to do to protect themselves and those around them and for that reason he will not upgrade the restrictions in that city to match those in Regina. Last week the Prairie South School Division decided to have all preK-12 schools in Moose Jaw and Caronport Elementary move to online learning as a precautionary measure until April 12. Tony Baldwin, the Director of Education, said in a letter to parents that although there have been “no confirmed school level transmission” there have been “more positive cases in schools over the past two days than we had for the 38 days prior to that.”
At the Tuesday March 30th press conference however, Premier Moe stated that he did not want to increase restrictions in any areas. He did extend the public health orders that were set to end on April 5th, to April 12th. Over the next two weeks, the Premier confirmed that the province will receive approximately 184,000 doses of vaccine, more than has been received to date. Over three quarters of Saskatchewan residents age 80 and over have received both doses of a vaccine and over one half of those 70 and over have received theirs. As more and more vaccines arrive, the SHA and the government will open appointment bookings for more and more age groups. As the new ad campaign the government launched promotes, Premier Moe encouraged everyone to “Stick it to COVID”.
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