Roussin defends perceived speed of vaccine rollout

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This article was published 06/04/2021 (1621 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s top doctor defended the province’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout Tuesday, as he faced questions about its slow pace.

The vaccine task force had planned to be able to immunize 20,000 Manitobans per day by April 1 — and the province claims it would now be able to administer 20,918 daily, if Manitoba had enough doses.

However, the province has not been able to meet that target.

Over the past week, a daily average of roughly 3,000 doses are being administered. Only 975 needles went into local arms Monday, according to the province’s data.

For months, provincial officials have blamed the slow rollout on a lack of vaccines; they’ve said many of the unadministered doses are earmarked for First Nations communities and there’s a lag in collecting the data to accurately reflect Manitoba’s vaccination rates.

Dr. Brent Roussin repeated those answers during a news conference Tuesday afternoon, saying the task force administers doses often within the same week it receives them.

When he was challenged on that point, Roussin said the task force quickly administers the vaccines it has control over — but that doesn’t include doses allocated to First Nations communities, clinics and pharmacies.

“Some of that is a delay in reporting, some of that is due to logistics with our partners providing the doses. But, yeah, we receive our doses and through, what the vaccine task force has direct control over, we are allocating that,” he said.

“From day one, I’ve been obviously concerned that we get this vaccine out as soon as possible, and I’m tightly linked with the task force and from all the data that we see from that, we’re getting the doses out as we receive it.”

But is Manitoba’s vaccine rollout happening fast enough to get ahead of the novel coronavirus and its highly contagious strains?

Roussin said he’s optimistic about widespread availability of doses, but Manitobans still need to be cautious over the next few months.

“It’s tough to conclude that right now because, certainly, if our numbers stay where they are for the next four to six weeks, then we are likely to have a significant number of Manitobans vaccinated by that time,” he said.

“If we are going to see a steep increase in cases, like we’ve seen in other jurisdictions, then we’re going to fall behind on that approach. That’s why it’s imperative to be cautious.”

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay