Health workers first to get vaccine
HALIFAX — Health workers who work in COVID-care settings in the central health zone will be the first to get the COVID-19 vaccine in Nova Scotia.
The province will receive 1,950 doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Dec. 15, said Dr. Robert Strang, chief medical officer of health, on Monday.
People who work in intensive care units and emergency rooms, COVID hospital units and long-term care staff at COVID treatment units will get those shots.
Pfizer has advised public health officials to administer the first batch of vaccines as close as possible to where it will be stored.
This vaccine must be kept at about -70 C, Strang said. An ultra-low temperature freezer at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax will be used to store the first batches (the province has ordered more of these types of freezers).
“That is an important consideration that we have to accommodate as to who are the almost 2,000 people who will be the first ones to get vaccinated here in the province,” Strang said. “But also we need to protect and preserve our frontline workers so they’re able to treat not only people with COVID but everyone else as well.”
Nova Scotia public health’s decisions on vaccination
priority groups are based on guidance from the national advisory committee on immunization, Strang said.
After the Dec. 15 initial batch, the province expects to get weekly allotments of vaccine throughout the first quarter of 2021.
Strang didn't give details as to how much more vaccine is expected at the teleconference briefing, which was cut short because Premier Stephen McNeil had other obligations.
After the first group is vaccinated, the immunization rollout will expand into groups including long-termcare residents and staff, and eventually into the community starting with people over 80 and moving down in five-year increments (75, 70, and so on)
The next group — likely in the spring — will be healthcare workers not working in COVID-19 settings and other essential workers.
“It will likely be the summer of 2021 that we'll start offering vaccines to the broader community,” Strang said. “So we are expecting to get 150,000 total doses of vaccine between now and the end of March. That means we can immunize 75,000 people — the vaccines require two doses about a month apart.”
The immunization won't be completely finished likely until the fall.
“It is going to be months and we are going to ask people to be patient,” Strang said. “There are some people that are more important to get vaccinated than others and we have to allow them to be at the front of the line.”
A military logistics team is helping public health officials come up with an immunization plan during a “dry run” this week.
Also Monday, Nova Scotia reported seven new cases of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia, continuing a downward trend of infections this week.
Two cases are in the western health zone and are close contacts of previously reported cases that have been sourced back to travel. Both of the new western zone cases are workers at a large poultry plant in the Annapolis Valley, Strang said at the briefing
There are also four new cases in the central zone, including one at Shannon Park Elementary in Dartmouth.
The number of active cases has dropped to 78 from 90 yesterday.