Nova Scotia Aims To Vaccinate 75 Percent Of Residents By October

HALIFAX — The provincial government plans to vaccinate 75 percent of eligible Nova Scotians against Covid-19 by October.

The province released details of its vaccination program on January 5, outlining a four-phase approach to distributing vaccine doses.

Dr. Robert Strang, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said Tuesday in a press briefing the plan is

“By far the most complex vaccine program we’ve ever implemented” in Nova Scotia.

About 140,000 vaccine doses are expected to arrive in the province by the end of March and another million doses are expected to be delivered between April and June.

So far, Nova Scotia has received a combined 9,550 vaccine doses, taken from both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.

The first round Pfizer vaccines have already been distributed to frontline healthcare workers while the Moderna vaccines, which are easier to store and transport, will be shipped to the province’s three biggest long-term care facilities in the coming days.

Those doses are all part of “Phase 0” of the province’s plan, which was essentially the test run for larger vaccination efforts the government is now rolling out.

Strang said Wednesday the province will open new vaccination clinics across the province this month to help roll out Phase 1 of its vaccination plan.

Phase 1 will run from January to April, continuing to target frontline healthcare workers “closely involved in the Covid-19 response.” That includes staff, designated caregivers, and residents in long-term care homes.

Phase 1 will also target seniors who are 80 or older, followed by anyone 75-79, and then healthcare workers such as physicians, paramedics, and home-care workers whose work involves direct contact with patients.

Strang said the province will be testing a number of delivery models during this phase of its vaccine delivery program.

“What that does is put us in a position to be ready when we get much larger amounts of the vaccine in Phase 2,” he said. “The speed of [vaccine delivery] will slowly increase and by the time we get to the spring with Phase 2 our objective is to deliver as much as 10,000 doses of vaccine a day.”

Phase 2, which is expected to begin in May, will target remaining health-care workers, as well as essential workers. Phase 3, which will begin this summer, will include “all Nova Scotians who are not part of Phase 1 and 2 priority groups.”