The province announced Thursday it is expanding its COVID-19 vaccine booking system to include Saskatchewan residents 80 years old and over beginning Friday at 8 a.m.
Those 85 years old and over were able to book appointments both online and by phone, starting on Thursday.
Saskatchewan Health Authority’s (SHA) new online booking system was announced on Wednesday.
“When the system goes live (March 11), there will be approximately 100 different locations where you can book your vaccine shot. So no one should have to travel too far. The pace of the vaccine deliveries to Saskatchewan will be picking up significantly in the coming weeks but we still expect demand to exceed supply,” Health Minister Paul Merriman said on Wednesday.
“If you’re not eligible, please don’t test the system. We’ve seen that in other provinces, British Columbia had 100,000 people eligible and they had 1.7 million people try to access and it crashed the system. We need to be able to make sure that our seniors have the first opportunity to be able to book in their appointments so they can get vaccinated first. That’s our priority.
“That’s why we picked from 85 and over to start so we had a very select amount of people … Right now, there’s going to be a low number there so that gives us an opportunity to test the system, to see how the uptake is and that’s why we didn’t open it too wide.”
As of 4 p.m. Thursday, SHA said 4,351 appointments have been scheduled. 3,063 appointments were made online and 1,288 were made by phone.
Phone appointments can be made by calling 1-833-727-5829. The vaccine call centre operates 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days per week.
“We have capacity for 6,000 bookings per day through the phone system and that’s in addition to the bookings that will occur through the online system,” Derek Miller, the chief of SHA’s emergency operation centre, said.
To book an appointment using the new online system, eligible people will need a valid health card and a cellphone number or email address where notifications will be sent.
Officials said it’s critical that people who are not currently eligible do not call the phone line or attempt to book through this process at this time. SHA said family and friends who aren’t yet eligible can also book on behalf of someone who is eligible.
“Doing so will unnecessarily stress critical infrastructure needed for these services and could result in delays getting eligible recipients immunized,” read a statement from the government.
“Any instances of providing false information in an attempt to ‘jump the queue’ are taken seriously, and may result in a criminal investigation.
“The system is designed to verify a person’s eligibility as their appointment is booked. Identification is also required upon arrival for appointments, to ensure vaccination of the same person who was registered online.”
The SHA said it will announce further age groups that will become eligible to book their appointments in the coming days, based on an available supply of vaccine.
During a press briefing on Wednesday, SHA CEO Scott Livingston said they’ll start administering the second doses as soon as possible.
“We expect to see that (vaccine) supply flow in the same manner and volume,” he said.
“So depending upon uptake but certainly having everybody with two shots in their arm is certainly doable, we believe, by fall of this year but certainly … first vaccinations will be done sometime, hopefully, mid-June.”
Once the new online booking system is in place, SHA said it will phase-out the existing process of direct phone calls to eligible patients.