Alec Salloum
Regina Leader-Post
With province’s now responsible for purchasing COVID-19 vaccines, the Government of Saskatchewan says it’s figuring out what the coming flu season response will be.
The federal government announced in early January that it would stop funding COVID-19 vaccines this year, with provinces and territories now responsible for buying, determining the timing and rollout of the vaccinations.
“Plans are currently in development for the fall/winter 2025-26 COVID-19 immunization program,” said a written statement provided by Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Health on Tuesday.
The ministry says that, at the moment, it is committed to continued provision of the current COVID-19 immunization program “based on scientific evidence and clinical expert recommendations made by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI).”
NACI has recommended “an additional COVID-19 vaccine dose be offered this spring to individuals who are most at risk of severe COVID-19 illness and outcomes,” the statement also said. That includes for people living in long term or personal care home facilities and people six months of age and older with medical conditions that place them at higher risk.
The current vaccine program will be sustained by the existing “sufficient supply of federally procured COVID-19” vaccines, according to the ministry.
NACI also recommends everyone 65 years and older, health-care workers and people deemed at higher risk of severe COVID-19 illness should get one vaccine per year if they’ve previously been vaccinated.
“Unlike influenza, SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating year-round, without a clear pattern in disease activity,” NACI explained in a statement last month. “However, since 2022, COVID-19 activity has consistently been higher from late-summer to early January, coinciding with the fall/winter respiratory season.”
- with files from The Canadian Press
