The flu shot clinic at the Shoppers Drug Mart in Emerald Park, Sask., opened its doors Monday morning to a lineup.
“Everything I’ve read indicates we should have the flu shot this year more so than ever,” said Blaine Ferrara, who cited the novel coronavirus as a reason he attended the pharmacy to get his vaccine early in the season.
“The more people who get it the less likely there will be a double-whammy,” noted Lorraine Ferrara, waiting with him to be immunized. “It’s a preventative measure.”
The Emerald Park Shoppers Drug Mart is one of 691 locations across the province now offering the flu shot, according to the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA).
The drug store’s pharmacist, Deviyani Patel, is expecting to see a 30 per cent increase in the number of people getting a flu shot at her business.
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While she said in the past she has run out of supplies, she doesn’t expect to run into the same problem this year, even with higher demand.
Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Health increased its order of the vaccine by 36.5 per cent, which works out to about 600,000 doses, in an attempt to avoid a twindemic amid COVID-19 concerns.
“We’re confident we will have enough for everyone and we have a strong supply chain system, so we’re hoping that we will be able to give flu vaccinations until the end of March, which is when the season ends,” Patel said.
Not all communities have clinics offering the flu shot, but the health authority said it’s reaching out to rural communities lacking a clinic to ensure people there are able to access the vaccine.
“We do have plans in place where we can use care providers who maybe have not been the traditional folks that deliver the vaccine to the population, but have that within their skillset,” said Kevin Wasko, the SHA’s physician executive for integrated rural health.
The processes around getting flu shot this year are a little different.
While some locations, including the Emerald Park Shoppers Drug Mart, are offering walk-in flu shots, Patel advises digitally filling out the form at home ahead of time, bringing the assigned online code, and having the staff at the location print it out. To avoid crowding in the clinic, patients have the option of waiting in their vehicles and receiving a text notification when staff are ready for them.
Health care workers administering the vaccines will be wearing masks and in some cases, other personal protective equipment, notes Patel, who has both a face shield and a surgical mask. Patients should expect to wear a mask as well, she added.
The room in which the flu shot is delivered will be sanitized between each patient, she said.
“Everyone should get their flu shot this year, there’s no question about it,” Patel said, noting seniors, young children, pregnant women and people with immunodeficiencies tend to be at higher risk of serious illness or complications.
— With files from Global’s Kayleen Sawatzky
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