Nova Scotia has passed the halfway mark of Phase 1 in its COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan. Following shipment delays and re-routed doses, the province is expecting to receive its largest shipment of COVID-19 vaccine to date, and it says public health is ready to ramp up the rollout.
As of Wednesday, the province has administered 24,049 doses of the vaccine, of which 8,830 Nova Scotians have received their second dose.
According to the provincial dashboard, nearly 8,000 health-care workers in the province have received their second dose of the vaccine. Nearly 600 long-term care residents have received their second dose.
Last week, Nova Scotia received only 1,950 doses of the Pfizer vaccine when over 10,000 doses, including both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, were expected.
Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are the only two vaccines that have been approved in Canada and both require two doses.
Not only was the province impacted by countrywide delays in shipments of the vaccines, but the federal government also re-routed Moderna vaccines for Nova Scotia to the northern territories last week.
In total, the province is more than 25,000 doses short. Nova Scotia has received 36,750 doses as of last week, compared to initial expectations of 61,800 doses.
Public health expects 10,530 doses of the Pfizer vaccine to arrive this week in what will be Nova Scotia’s largest shipment to date.
“Nova Scotia is prepared to administer the vaccine that we are expecting to receive,” Health Department spokesperson Marla MacInnis said in an email statement Wednesday.
“We have a strategic, flexible COVID-19 plan that can adapt to increases or decreases in vaccine supply. Our clinics are able to ramp up or ramp down to ensure vaccine continues to flow into arms as we wait for regular shipments to increase.”
MacInnis said the province is prepared with adequate supplies and human resources, in case of ramped up vaccine shipments.
The province has 10 cold storage sites from which eight clinics across the province receive the vaccines on a rotational basis, until the province gets a steady stream of shipments.
Priority groups
Due to a current limited supply of the vaccine, the vaccine is currently being offered to the following groups:
- those working directly with patients in hospitals or patients in their home
- those living and working in long-term care homes and designated caregivers
- those living and working in community facilities, including adult residential care centres, rehabilitation centres and residential care facilities
The next round of priority groups, expected to be vaccinated in Phase 2, will include the following:
- anyone working in a hospital who may come into contact with patients
- doctors and nurses who work in the community
- dentists and dental hygienists
- pharmacists and pharmacy technicians
- those who live in large group settings and those who work directly with them, including correctional facilities, shelters and temporary foreign workers’ quarters
- those who are required to regularly travel in and out of the province for work, such as truck drivers and rotational workers, excluding daily travellers to and from New Brunswick
- those who are responsible for food security and cannot maintain public health protocols due to the nature of their work, including those in food processing plants
Phase 2 is expected to begin in April, when all priority groups, including those over 75 years old, are expected to be vaccinated.
Phase 3 of the vaccine rollout plan is when the majority of Nova Scotians will receive their COVID-19 immunization. The province expects this phase to launch by this summer. Nova Scotia’s goal is to vaccinate everyone who wishes to be vaccinated before the end of September.
Community immunization clinics
As a part of its mass vaccine rollout plan, the province is increasing the ways in which Nova Scotians can receive their vaccine. Primarily, immunization will be done in mass community clinics based on descending age groups.
“This is how most Nova Scotians will get immunized,” chief medical officer of health Dr. Robert Strang said in an update on Feb. 3. “Our age-based approach will begin with those aged 80 years and older.”
MacInnis said the province is planning to have 10 community clinics up and running by end of March.
“How Nova Scotians will be invited to participate in those clinics will be communicated closer to the clinics starting,” she said.
The first prototype clinic will open in Halifax on Feb. 22. The province said 500 people have been randomly selected based on their age and postal code to ensure they are over 80 years old and within an hour from the clinic.
“We are currently finalizing a prototype with the Pharmacy Association of Nova Scotia that will launch in a small number of pharmacies in March,” said MacInnis.
The prototype will help public health determine how broadly the vaccine can be distributed considering temperature and storage requirements.
“It is our goal to expand into community-based clinics with as many pharmacists and physicians as possible as soon as we have supply to do so.”
Strang said in the Feb. 16 briefing that public health is planning ahead to ensure no vaccine is wasted. It is likely that more people will be invited than can actually receive the vaccine.
“I recognize that may end up putting some people in a place where they can’t actually get their appointment, but it’s far better to have a bit of that disappointment, knowing that they will be able to get their vaccine over time, than to waste vaccine by not having slots filled.”
In the first week of February, Strang said the province is also working on immunization plans for marginalized communities.
“We also continue to work with our First Nations and African Nova Scotian communities right now to understand their needs, to ensure our vaccination is culturally responsive,” he said in a Feb. 3 briefing.
“We could have prototypes in the next couple of weeks for both of those communities.”
Still on track to meet target
Despite February’s rollout being marred by shipment delays, Nova Scotia health officials feel confident that the province can get back on track.
The provincial government still expects to meet its target of vaccinating all eligible Nova Scotians by the end of September.
“It may seem like a slow process but we’re now able to administer the vaccine in all parts of our province,” Premier Stephen McNeil said in this week’s COVID-19 update.
By the end of March, immunization clinics are expected to be located in Halifax Regional Municipality, Truro, Cape Breton Regional Municipality, Kentville, Yarmouth, Antigonish, Amherst and Bridgewater.
Strang said the province expects to be vaccinating up to 12,000 people a day by the start of Phase 2 in order to meet its goal.
As of Wednesday, the province has 14 active cases of COVID-19.
To date, the province has confirmed 1,600 cases of the virus since the pandemic began in March. Of those, 1,521 cases are considered resolved.
There have been 65 deaths in Nova Scotia linked to the coronavirus.