Growing pains to latest vaccine rollout
SYDNEY — No rollout of any new COVID-19 vaccine process is expected to be smooth sailing, said Nova Scotia's newest health minister.
“We're going to be learning as we go,” said Zach Churchill on Thursday, following a cabinet meeting with Premier Iain Rankin, the first one since Rankin was sworn as Stephen McNeil's successor on Feb. 23. “I do believe we're on track to getting herd immunity in Nova Scotia, even sooner than our initial timeline.
“Having these AstraZeneca vaccines on hand now for Nova Scotians who choose to accept that vaccination is going to help us do that. Also, the new NACI (National Advisory Committee on Immunization) recommendations on the time between the first and second shot is going to help us ensure that Nova Scotians get that first (vaccine) shot sooner."
Booking appointments to get a COVID-19 vaccine has proven to be a major challenge.
Earlier this week, an online booking system crashed due to an extremely high volume of people trying to access the site. In a letter to SaltWire Network, one Halifax reader wrote that after spending a couple of hours attempting to make an online appointment, “it informed me that now no appointments were available in Halifax. But I could book one in Sydney!”
“As we deal with challenges and obstacles that arise, we hope we can only get better,” Churchill said.
AstraZeneca, the third vaccine to receive approval from Health Canada, is ready to be rolled out in Nova Scotia starting the week of March 15 and administered through Doctors Nova Scotia and the Pharmacy Association of Nova Scotia.
According to a release issued Wednesday, the first of the 13,000 doses will be administered as first doses to those between 50 and 64 years old at more than two dozen locations in the province, on a first-come, firstserve basis.
Rankin told the news conference that effective handling of the latest vaccine rollout “will be up to the providers. But it is important to note that (the vaccinations) are voluntary for that age cohort,” he said, adding he hopes to have all Nova Scotians vaccinated by June.