REGINA -- NDP Leader Ryan Meili is accusing the Government of Saskatchewan of politicizing its vaccine roll out, following the province’s announcement of the next phase of its Delivery Plan earlier this week.

Speaking Thursday, Meili suggested the decisions about who receives the vaccine is based around politics, not medical recommendations.

“I think there's a whole lot more people that are 50 to 59 or 60 to 69 than there are health care workers, and so he's counting the votes,” Meili said. “What [Health Minister Paul Merriman] should be doing is acting in the most evidence based way to keep people safe and keep our healthcare system properly functioning, that's his job.”

“Lets get the politics out of this and actually listen to the experts, and that sure as heck isn’t our Minister of Health here in Saskatchewan.”

Moe responded to the accusations at a press conference Thursday afternoon.

“They’re wrong, that simply isn’t it,” Moe said. “Most certainly people in their 60s have poor outcomes if they should contract COVID.”

“Sequencing by age is the best way for us to vaccinate as many people as possible and to do so as quickly as possible, and to do so in a way that reduces the severe outcomes as much as we are able.”

To date, 305 of the province’s 348 COVID-19 deaths have been people over the age of 60.

 

Saskatchewan released its plan for phase two of its vaccine roll out during a press conference on Tuesday.

The province is moving to an age-based approach, focusing on the general population in 10-year increments, starting with people in their 60s and working down.

Instead of the general population vaccinations presented in Phase Two, Meili advocated for more vaccine coverage for health care workers,

“When you're when you're older you're at higher risk, there's no question, but the health care workers are in risky situations. They're more likely to be exposed and contract the virus,” Meili said.

“We have seen healthcare workers and younger folks die as a result of this virus. They're also going from patient to patient, ward to ward, so there's higher risk of them infecting others, including elderly patients who are at risk.”

Moe said the Ministry of Health is looking at any revisions that could be made to the vaccination plan to potentially include some additional categories of health care workers in phase one.

“Is there other groups of folks in the healthcare sector that would be at high risk of coming in constant contact with COVID-19 patients? Is there other groups that maybe we could include and pull forward into phase one?” Moe said. “In saying that, it isn’t going to be all the groups across the healthcare sector.”

The province said approximately 10,000 to 15,000 healthcare workers are included in phase one.

This week, representatives for teachers, police officers, corrections workers and inmates voiced their disappointment about being excluded from the province’s vaccine plan.

Moe noted he has heard from some groups throughout the province asking to be vaccinated sooner. The premier said he understands why they feel that way, but that the issue comes down to the province’s supply.

“If we had more vaccines available from the federal government, we would be able to look at getting everyone vaccinated, a lot more quickly than we have so far,” Moe said. “But the reality of the situation is that we’re dealing with what is a very scarce supply of vaccines in Saskatchewan and across Canada.”

According to the province, Phase 2 of the Vaccine Delivery Plan could start in April, but it is dependent on vaccine supply from Ottawa.