The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) says Saskatoon’s first mass immunization clinic for the COVID-19 vaccine will be a hockey rink-turned-field hospital.
In April 2020, the SHA chose Merlis Belsher Place as a possible location to treat coronavirus-related patients if needed.
It was announced on Friday that the mass immunization clinic will be located on the main floor in the area that was set up as a potential COVID-19 field hospital space on the University of Saskatchewan campus.
Once up and running at full capacity, it will be able to see 1,4000 people a day, according to Jennifer Cushon, SHA’s director of primary health care in Saskatoon.
“We have been using space on the second floor of Merlis Belsher Place to immunize health-care workers since late December,” Cushon said in a statement.
“As vaccine supply allows and we complete immunizations for those groups with the highest risk and need, we will follow the provincial plan to move to larger sections of the population, sequenced backwards by age.
“This is just one of the ways Saskatoon residents will be able to access the COVID-19 vaccine as they become eligible. As Phase 2 opens in the spring, additional options will include drive-thru and satellite immunization clinics.”
The COVID-19 immunization site at Merlis Belsher Place is by appointment only for eligible Phase 1 priority residents, SHA said.
Currently, Phase 1 of Saskatchewan’s immunization delivery plan includes priority health-care workers, individuals in all communities who are 70 and older, residents and staff in long-term care and personal care homes and residents who are 50 and older in remote and northern communities.
A total of 27,945 second doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Saskatchewan, provincial government officials said on Friday.
SHA said if the field hospital is required, it would be ready to accept patients with two weeks’ notice and the mass immunization site would move to another location.