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By Angela Brown

Turning the corner

Local organizations relieved to see COVID-19 vaccine will soon begin to arrive in province

Dec 9, 2020 | 5:00 PM

While the province’s restrictions during the pandemic remain in place, a number of Battlefords area organizations are relieved to hear a new vaccine for COVID-19 will soon start to arrive in Saskatchewan.

On Wednesday, Saskatchewan released its COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Plan, and inoculations are expected to begin by Dec. 15. Saskatchewan’s Phased Approach will begin with a pilot phase of 1,950 doses of the Pfizer ultra-frozen vaccine to be administered at the Regina General Hospital.

For Phase 1, another 202,052 doses will be planned to be dispensed to “priority populations” like long-term care residents and staff, health workers in emergency departments, and the elderly. That is expected to take place starting in late December.

The second phase of the Vaccine Delivery Plan is anticipated to commence in April 2021.

“It’s excellent news,” North Battleford Mayor David Gillan said. “It’s positivity that we can use in the community right now, that there is a finish-line in this terrible pandemic.”

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“As human beings, we are not meant to sit home in a bubble forever,” he added. “We are really seeing the strains on the mental-health system. I’m concerned about people’s mental health throughout all this. It’s not just financial health but mental health.”

It has been almost a year, Gillan said, since the pandemic started in March.

“I’m really happy and encouraged that a vaccine will come to Saskatchewan,” he said. “It won’t come all at once. We won’t all be vaccinated at once. We have to be realistic but it is coming in steps – with the most vulnerable and front-line care workers first. We just need to get through another few months of hard times I believe, and look forward to the spring when the vaccination is rolling out more aggressively.”

Margaret Kemp, president of Seniors Action Now Club in North Battleford, said it is good to hear a vaccine will be available soon.

“Hopefully, it will work out well,” she said.

Kemp said the centre has been closed since March due to COVID-19 restrictions for gathering. She is hopeful for the day when the group is able to meet again for social activities.

“We’ve been biding our time until things [improve] so we can get back to our usual programs,” she said. “Maybe with the vaccine coming, in a year or so we might be able to do that.”

For her own safety during the pandemic, Kemp said she hasn’t been inside a busy grocery store since March, as her daughter is able to pick up her shopping instead.

Kemp is looking forward to the time eventually when she can meet with all her family again, many of whom live in other parts of the country.

Canadian Mental Health Association Battlefords Branch Executive Director Jane Zielke de Montbrun said she is pleased to see there will be some hope on the way, with word of the vaccine being released.

On the mental health side, she said, knowing the vaccine will soon be available sometime in the future may help relieve people’s stress related to the pandemic.

“I would hope that that type of news would help decrease some of the level of anxiety, and bring a sense of safety and security,… that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that things will get better,” Zielke de Montbrun said.

“I’m hoping the news of the vaccine coming to Canada and Saskatchewan is going to do that for some folks, and I hope that everybody during this Christmas season can maintain some level of wellness,” she added. “It’s a very difficult time for everybody right now. I just hope everybody stays safe.”

—With files from Canadian Press

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW