First Covid-19 Vaccine Will Arrive In Nova Scotia Dec. 15
HALIFAX—The first doses of Covid-19 vaccine will arrive in Nova Scotia Dec. 15.
Dr. Robert Strang, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said the province will receive a shipment of 1,950 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine next week, as part of a federal test run of vaccine delivery systems.
Strang said those first, nearly 2,000 doses will be given to frontline, acute-care workers in the province’s central zone.
That includes people who work in intensive care units and emergency rooms, Covid-19 wards, and some long-term care workers.
Strang said the provincial government is following guidelines from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization to choose how to distribute the vaccine.
He said the first doses of Pfizer’s vaccine need to be kept at -70°C and can’t be transported far from where it’s stored. This means it makes sense to offer it to healthcare workers who are already close by.
Strang said that after the initial 1,950 doses, the province expects to get weekly allotments of the Covid-19 vaccine and will continue to follow NACI advice on who to give it to.
That means once frontline staff are covered the province will move on to residents in long-term care facilities. From there they will start vaccinating Nova Scotians older than 80 and moving down by five-year increments from there.
He said it will likely be the spring of 2021 before the province can expand immunization efforts beyond health care and essential workers, and summer 2021 before the vaccine is available to the broader public.
The federal government is distributing the Covid-19 vaccine to each province based on population, and Strang said Nova Scotia expects to receive 150,000 total does between now and March. The vaccine requires two doses to be effective, so 75,000 people can be immunized by then.
“We’re probably looking into the fall of 2021 before we’re actually finished with the immunization program,” Strang said.
He added that Nova Scotians will need to be patient as vaccines are distributed and warned people not to “get too relaxed” while that happens.
That will mean keeping public health measures like mask-wearing and social distancing in place.