Murray Mandryk: Gov’t changes strategy in COVID-19 fight

By Murray Mandryk

The Saskatchewan government changed strategies in the COVID-19 fight last week.

It is now taking the vaccination fight right to the people.

“The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is shifting their vaccination focus from mass vaccination to focused outreach, targeting those in the province who are under- and unvaccinated,”the government announced in a news release.

Come, Aug. 8, the SHA will discontinue drive thru and appointments booked through their online systems and shift to walk-in clinics in at summer event like fairs and pow wows, in retail locations like grocery stores and at provincial parks and community centres

In making the announcement, the government noted that 74 per cent of those 12 years and older have had one dose.

When the province announced five weeks ago that it was lifting all restrictions on July 11 — including mandatory mask-wearing and restrictions on large gatherings and social distancing — it claimed it had almost reached its goal of injecting 70 per cent of Saskatchewan people 12 years and old with one dose.

That means the current strategy is producing less than one-per-cent-per-week of new first-dosers.

We will not achieve a 100-per-cent vaccination rate. Some people simply can’t have these vaccines for medical reasons and will always refuse to get vaccinated.

But we clearly need more people vaccinated than we currently have.

By way of interest, the news release further mentioned that the province now had vaccine to cover 85 per cent of the population. To get everyone to that level on second doses would take months.

Health Minister Paul Merriman said last week the best way to achieve “the highest possible vaccination rate” is this change in strategy.

"This focused outreach is to further drive first and second dose uptake, meeting residents where they live, work and play and support individuals in their decision to make our province as safe as possible," Merriman said in a prepared statement last week.

"The provincial vaccination program will not stop. All residents are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the readily available and convenient clinic options available now through August 8.”

It would be unfair to suggest that the old strategy did not work, but it would be fair to suggest that it was only going to go so far when it came to meeting Saskatchewan’s needs.

It should be noted that Saskatchewan people this spring did take up the challenge to come to drive-thru clinics in larger centres like in Regina and Saskatoon. At great personal inconvenience, many lined up for hours after driving for miles.

It was one the big reason that Saskatchewan became an early leader in both first- and second doses.

However, this province is now last in the nation when it comes to first-dose vaccinations and — after a successful early take-up — is now falling behind other jurisdictions in second doses.

Saskatchewan is a big place with a lot of communities in rural and remote locations. Outbreaks in the north have been especially disconcerting.

So severe has the situation become in the northern community of Buffalo River Denesuline First Nation that the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations last week called on the province and the RCMP to help stop the spread.

“It’s very localized,” Paul Merriman told reporters last week. “And like I said before: any of the outbreaks or the trends that we’re seeing are coming in unvaccinated areas or unvaccinated communities or unvaccinated people.”

Making it easy for people who couldn’t make it drive-thrus is one solution.

But the government may need further initiatives, including local rural MLAs being far more pro-active in taking on those either procrastinating or opposing vaccines.

It may be your choice to get vaccinated, but it’s not your choice to give it others.

Rural MLAs need to more aggressively deliver that message — even if it offends a few voters or frustrates a few more that want this to be over.