Vaccine delays will likely force Manitoba to postpone 2nd doses, province says

Ongoing delays in shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will likely delay some second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine at Manitoba supersites in Winnipeg and Brandon, the provincial government announced Monday.

Last week, the province stopped taking new appointments at its immunization supersites in Winnipeg and Brandon, after learning it wouldreceive less than half the number of doses it expected to get in the week of Feb. 1, dropping from 5,850 to 2,340.

If the province is forced to postpone some second doses, it will prioritize giving second doses to personal care home residents,said Dr. Joss Reimer, a member of the provincial vaccine implementation task force and medical officer of health with Manitoba Health.

"Right now we have enough in our freezerto provide either the appointments that are bookedfor next week and the week after, or to provide the second dose to our personal care home residents," shesaid.

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Dr. Joss Reimer, part of Manitoba's vaccine implementation task force, said Monday she would give a dose to every front-line worker in the province if she could but low supply makes that impossible.

Thenumber and length of postponements will depend on howmanydoses arrive in Manitoba's next shipment, expected the week of Feb. 8. If they receive enough doses in that shipment, the province will be able to proceed with vaccinations for both care home residents and appointments at the supersites.

The decision to prioritize care home residents was made due to the fact that older peoplehave a lower immune response to the vaccine.

"That's why we're making sure we prioritize the seconddose on time for the personal care home residents just to give them that extra boost and increase the likelihoodthat they would be ableto fight off that infectionif they were faced with the virus after immunization," Reimer said.

Eligibility list coming Wednesday

The province will release its plan for expanding eligibility for the vaccine onWednesday, Reimer said. The task force had planned to release the priority list and eligibility schedule last week, but the delays in shipments forced it to focus on adjustments tothe supply to determinewho wouldstill have appointmentsandwhen, Reimersaid.

Starting this week, the province will only administer second doses of the two-dose vaccineat the Winnipeg and Brandon supersites.

As of Monday, vaccinationteams had visited about half of Manitoba's personal care homes, offering first doses of the vaccineto residents. By Friday, vaccinationteams are expected to visit the remaining 62personal care homes where residents have not yet been offered vaccines.

The teams will revisit homes and other sites regularly to offer vaccines to new residents.

Vaccination clinics will open for eligible health-care workers in The Pas and Flin Flon starting the week of Feb. 8the first time clinics for health-care workers havebeen set up outside of Manitoba's supersites since the first one opened at the RBC Convention Centre in Winnipeg.

The province decided to open the two new sites after consultingwith the Northern Health region, and determining that it wouldbe better to have the vaccine offeredat more sites than justthe oneset to open in Thompson on Feb. 1.

These clinics will usethe Moderna vaccine rather than Pfizer-BioNTech, supplies of which remain uncertain due to ongoing shipment delays from the manufacturer.

About 500doses of the Moderna vaccine will be divided up among the sites in Thompson, Flin Flon and The Pas.

Eligible people can now book appointments at the supersite set to open at the Thompson Regional Community Centre.

As of Monday, the province had administered29,751 first and second vaccine doses53.5 per cent of its supply.

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