It’s been three months since the first Nova Scotian received the COVID-19 vaccination, but since then progress has been slow. As of Friday, only about 38,000 people received their first dose, which is about three per cent of the province’s population.
Compared to the rest of the country, that puts Nova Scotians last. The territories are doing with best with the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut already having vaccinated 40 per cent, 36 per cent and 23 per cent of their populations, respectively.
Out of the provinces, Saskatchewan has the most with nearly six per cent, following by Quebec at just over 5.5 per cent and P.E.I. with 5.4 percent.
When asked on Friday about being dead last, Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia’s chief medical officer of health, says that’s largely due to the province’s initial plan of holding back 50 per cent of all shipments for the second dose. That was because at the time, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommendation was to have people receive their second dose within three to four weeks of the first dose, and supply was unreliable.
“We have moved away from that, but we had large numbers of people that when they gave their consent to be vaccinated they gave it on the knowledge they would get their second dose 21 to 28 days later. We honoured that consent, it would be unethical to change it now,” said Strang.
The remaining supply being held for second doses will be used up in early April and once that’s done and we start receiving more supply, Strang says things will start moving much more quickly.
“I take a longer-term view on this — the end goal is getting all Nova Scotians the opportunity to get vaccinated,” said Strang.
“I’m not really concerned where we are now compared to other provinces because I know we’re on a trajectory to getting all Nova Scotians over the next two to three months.”
But the plan released to the public on exactly how that will happen has been vague, which is why infectious disease expert Brian Conway gave Nova Scotia a ‘D’ when grading the vaccination plans of all provinces and territories.
“Let’s try and be as specific as we can,” Conway said. “How many vaccines are going to be administered for a day, who are we going to target and how are we going to achieve the ultimate goal?”
Conway noted that there isn’t the same urgency in provinces like Nova Scotia as there is in places like Ontario and Quebec, which continue to have high daily case counts, and that some provinces have been hesitant to release more detailed plans due to the inconsistency of supply.
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“I think that once we get over that, once we’re assured that an appropriate supply of vaccine are available, I suspect everyone will develop plans that are more specific and more targeted,” said Conway.
On numerous occasions, Strang has said that supply is the biggest challenge for Nova Scotia’s rollout plan and once the province gets more steady supply in mid to late April, things will move quickly.
Strang says his goal is to get Nova Scotians vaccinated as quickly and as efficiently as possible, which is also why the province will be sticking with an aged-based approach. While some provinces are moving people up the line based on profession or medical conditions, Nova Scotia will not be doing the same.
“The process we’ve chosen will get us to middle of June for all Nova Scotians,” Strang said. “I’m very comfortable given our epidemiology no one is put at substantive risk by use following an age-based approach. If our epidemiology changes then we may need to switch.
“We have to take the approach that allows us to get the most number of people immunized as quickly as we can, regardless of their health status, regardless of the work they do.”
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