Manitoba has reached a milestone with its COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
According to Dr. Joss Reimer with Manitoba’s Vaccine Implementation Task Force, our province has now administered more than 50,000 doses of vaccine. As of Wednesday, there have been 33,930 first doses given and 16,624-second doses. To put that into perspective, 1.5 per cent of adult Manitobans are now fully vaccinated.
“We continue to be second in the country when it comes to ensuring that people are fully protected with a second dose of vaccine,” says Dr. Reimer.
She says they have a goal of building their capacity to be able to deliver 20,000 doses of vaccine per day.
Focused immunization teams expect to immunize approximately 2,600 residents of personal care homes this week with their second dose of vaccine. All personal care home residents who want the vaccine should be fully vaccinated by the end of February.
Meanwhile, Health Canada recently approved changes to count each vial of the Pfizer vaccine as six doses, not five. The province says the longer-term vaccine delivery forecasts will not be affected by this change. However, it does reduce the number of vaccines that Manitoba expects to receive by the end of March. As a result, Manitoba expects its plans to begin immunizing people over the age of 80 will be slightly delayed.
Eligibility criteria for immunization have been expanded to include more health care workers in acute care facilities, emergency response services and specialty patient transportation, and home care workers. Individuals born on or before December 31st, 1980 can now call to book an immunization appointment. Prior to now, the cutoff was December 31st, 1975.
To date, a total of 66,090 doses of vaccine have been delivered to Manitoba. This includes 43,290 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 22,800 doses of the Moderna vaccine. Manitoba expects 3,510 doses of Pfizer this week and 15,210 doses next week.
