REGINA -- One day after becoming the province’s first residents vaccinated against COVID-19, Dr. Jeffery Betcher and Emergency Room Nurse Leah Sawatsky say they aren’t letting their guard down on the job.
"I don’t see it as giving us the ability to change anything as much as to feel we have just another level of protection that we didn’t have before," Dr. Betcher said.
The two healthcare workers still require a second dose of the vaccine in 21 days to receive its full 95 per cent effectiveness against the virus.
"Not everybody has been immunized and I’m not sure if we know how transmission rates will decrease or not in those who are vaccinated," added Sawatsky.
Leah Sawatsky, a Regina emergency room nurse, received one of Saskatchewan's first COVID-19 vaccine doses. (Supplied: Saskatchewan Health Authority)
Neither Dr. Betcher or Sawatsky reported feeling any side effects from the vaccine.
Health officials downplayed any concerns residents might have about the safety of the vaccine.
"I really want to ensure people that a large amount of resources was put into the development of this vaccine worldwide," Dr. Tania Diener, immunization lead with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, said. "No safety protocols were bypassed, all the adequate testing in terms of trials, going through different phases, reaching certain end points, those were achieved."
More of the 1,950 healthcare workers in Regina that are part of the SHA’s pilot phase are receiving their first doses this week.
Diener expects the next phases of the province’s vaccine rollout, which would see healthcare workers in other cities and vulnerable populations vaccinated, could start before the pilot phase is completed in Regina.
"The purpose of the pilot project is really to test our logistics and distribution because it just such a different vaccine, this is the most complex thing we’ve ever dealt with in Canada," she said.
"We’ve already started sharing everything we’ve learned, everything we’ve developed here in Regina with the other areas in the SHA, so when we know where the next shipment will go to that they are ready to immediately start implementing it."
One issue the SHA is working through is the temperature at which the Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored and the challenges that presents for transportation, especially when it comes to vaccinate residents of long-term care homes.
Diener said the SHA would likely have to wait for the Moderna vaccine, which can be stored at a higher temperature, to be approved by Health Canada to begin vaccinating those in care homes.
"[The Pfizer vaccine] is an ultra-frozen product, so there’s time needed to defrost it and also the number of times a day you can open the packages with the vaccines and how often you should replace the dry ice, which are a lot of different things we as vaccine providers haven’t dealt with before," she said.
The SHA expects another shipment of the vaccine to arrive between Dec. 21 and Jan. 3 and then weekly shipments to come to the province after that.
