Province booking second vaccine appointments starting Friday

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/05/2021 (1763 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province will open second-dose COVID-19 vaccination appointments to eligible Manitobans starting Friday.

Vaccination task force co-lead Johanu Botha said a group of about 26,000 people with select health conditions will become eligible first. A complete list of the conditions is available at http://wfp.to/7wC.

“It should only be these individuals that book appointments,” Botha said. “There will be the usual screening, online and (through) the call centre, to ensure that this is the case.

“We would just like to remind Manitobans of that. There’s a good reason why these individuals are able to book their second doses first.”

It’s expected that second-dose appointments will be scheduled in early to mid-June.

The campaign to give all Manitobans their second dose — assuming 70 per cent uptake in Manitobans 12 or older — will be complete by July 31, Botha said.

Second-shot eligibility will gradually open up to the general population based on the date the first dose was received, he said, adding the next change in eligibility could come as early as Monday.

Botha said the province will primarily use first-dose cut-off dates to guide the rollout, providing an example that eligibility could move to people who received a dose by March 29, and then to those who received their first dose by April 5, and so on.

“The reason we’re doing it that way… is we’re able to identify the amount of people that will likely book during that time, so it’s nice from a planning perspective, and also we have a clinical rationale baked into the dose 1 timeline,” he said.

Manitobans will need to fill out another consent form for the second dose and screening will be in place through the online booking portal and vaccine hotline.

People will also need to know what type of vaccine they received and on what date when booking their appointment. That information can be found online through Shared Health’s website or through a local public-health office.

“The name of the game is deja vu,” Botha said. “You’re going to do what you did the first time, pretty much.

“The only substantive difference in the process is ideally individuals know which vaccine type they received for their first dose. We will be ensuring people receive the same vaccine for their first and second dose at this time.”

As the province moves through the second-dose campaign, people who provided their contact information will receive notifications when it’s their turn to book, either via phone calls, emails or text messages.

The province is planning to provide Manitobans who have received a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine with a second shot. However, clinical guidance could change based on emerging research on providing an mRNA vaccine, such as Pfizer or Moderna, for the booster shot. he said.

Botha said that if the vaccine task force’s medical leadership chooses to offer mRNA vaccines as a second dose for people who received AstraZeneca, they would receive their shot at a provincially run immunization clinic rather than at their doctor’s office or from a pharmacist.

Second-dose appointments for AstraZeneca will be offered through medical clinics and pharmacies following the recommended 12 week dosing interval, he said.

The province will also begin posting vaccine uptake rates by health district on its dashboard this week, officials said.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca