REGINA -- Premier Scott Moe says Saskatchewan has virtually run out of vaccines, however the shortage will not last for long – according to the government, the province is expecting to receive more than 12,000 doses next week.
The government said it has confirmed a shipment of 5,850 doses of the Pfizer vaccine for Feb. 1.
There are 6,500 Moderna doses anticipated to arrive the first week of February. The government said they will be distributed to the Far Northwest, Far Northeast, Northeast and Central West zones.
On Tuesday, Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Scott Livingstone said there is a small number of Pfizer doses left in Saskatoon which will be used for second dose appointments that are already booked. He said there are two other communities in the Far North and Southeast that have under 1,000 Moderna doses remaining.
Livingstone said those remaining doses will disappear over the next few days as vaccinations are completed.
Moe said the province will continue to press the federal government to deliver more doses and to approve additional COVID-19 vaccines. He said Ottawa has guaranteed Saskatchewan will receive the doses it was promised.
“We’ve been assured – most recently on our First Minister's call last week – that we still are going to get our allocation of vaccines that we were allocated in the first quarter of this year,” Moe said. “We're hopeful that AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson vaccines may be approved at some point, and we may be able to procure some of those vaccines, which would be very helpful in getting us even larger number of vaccines as soon as possible.”
During Question Period in Ottawa on Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland repeated that everyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one by September, despite a pause on deliveries from Pfizer and a warning that Europe may impose export controls.
