Sask. gov't to talk about plans for vaccinating kids 11 and under against COVID-19
CBC
The Saskatchewan government says it will give an update on the province's COVID-19 situation on Tuesday afternoon, including planning for the rollout of vaccinations for children 11 and under.
Dr. Saqib Shahab, Saskatchewan's chief medical health officer, will attend the news conference.
Shahab will be joined by Dr. Tania Diener, the medical health officer responsible for immunizations, and Sheila Anderson, the vaccine chief responsible for the Saskatchewan Health Authority's COVID-19 immunization campaign.
Canada will receive enough vaccine doses from Pfizer to allow all children aged five to 11 to get a first dose shortly after Health Canada approves it for that age group, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last week.
Shahab said on Friday that Pfizer has submitted its package for approval and that Health Canada was going through the approval process.
He said he expected the National Advisory Committee on Immunization to come out in support of the plan.
"We expect to get vaccines sometime in early to mid November, which is really good news," Shahab said. "We need to be ready so that, as soon as vaccine comes, it is made available for children five to 11."
In late September, Shahab voiced concerns about the province's future child-vaccination rates, based on the vaccination uptake among older Saskatchewan residents at the time.
"If we go by current trends in parents of those children in various parts of Saskatchewan, [it] certainly does not give us great optimism for the uptake in children," he said.
As of Monday, 85 per cent of all eligible Saskatchewan residents had been vaccinated with one dose while 76.8 per cent had been fully vaccinated.
As of last Thursday, 68 per cent of youth aged 12 to 17 were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 — tied with people in their thirties for the second lowest coverage percentage of any age group in the province.
Among people aged 18 to 29, 66 per cent were fully vaccinated.
This First Person column is the experience of Shannon Flaman, who lives in Red Deer, Alta. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.
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