The Manitoba government has released more information about the province's COVID-19 vaccine plans, including who will get what and when.
The province announced a four-stage plan to immunize more people across Manitoba from COVID-19, naming several priority groups and who will get doses next.
Throughout Manitoba, vaccination efforts will grow through four priority groups first - health care workers and staff at seniors' facilities and other "congregate living staff", residents at seniors' facilities and "congregate living facilities" and people living in First Nations communities will have first priority, followed then by all other Manitobans, based on age. Other factors, including whether people have chronic health conditions that could make a COVID-19 infection much more dangerous, will be weighed along the way.
"This is the largest rollout of a vaccine in the history, not just of Manitoba, but in the entire world. We're all trying to plan for every conceivable scenario and adjust the plan accordingly," said provincial health minister Heather Stefanson.
People in those three priority groups have already begun receiving their doses, including residents at Flin Flon seniors' facilities and - starting early next month - health care staff in Flin Flon. A pop-up vaccination site for health care workers will open in Flin Flon starting Feb. 8. Workers will be contacted directly by their employers to receive their first dose of the vaccine.
Manitoba's full vaccination plan was created by the province's vaccine medical advisory group, a 30-member group consisting of health staff including 27 doctors, two nurses and a pharmacist.
"There is no step-by-step playbook to follow, but through their efforts and examining different options and approaches from around the world and across Canada, this team has put together the most wide-ranging team possible," said Stefanson.
Supplies of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to Manitoba will be disrupted as the pharmaceutical company temporarily stops producing the vaccine while it expands its own assembly lines, but once the interruption is over, provincial health officials plan to supply sites across Manitoba as quickly as possible.
The disruption is unlikely to affect vaccinations in northern communities - Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines have been mostly used in major population centres in southern Manitoba as the vaccine requires more upkeep and is harder to ship to remote areas. Instead, remote regions and Indigenous communities have been receiving doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, which requires less cold temperatures for storage.
The plan was also made based on guidelines from the federal National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), which has emphasized getting vaccines as quickly as possible to people at high risk of illness or death from COVID-19, people who may possibly transmit the disease to vulnerable people and anyone living or working in an area where they could be infected or could infect others.
To go along with the new guidelines, the Manitoba government has announced plans to open new vaccination "super-sites" and expand capacities at areas where people can receive vaccinations. Two "super-sites" in Winnipeg and Brandon have been opened, with a third site to open up in Thompson Feb. 1.
As of Jan. 27, 33,361 total doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been given in Manitoba, with around another 39,000 doses planned in the next four weeks.
