Annual flu shots and COVID-19 vaccinations are now available for all provincial residents aged six months and older.<\/p>\n
At a joint event Tuesday at Regina\u2019s Eastview Community Centre, Saskatchewan\u2019s chief medical officer and several Indigenous health authority officials shared details on how to get the voluntary vaccines, and implored residents to get their shots.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe encourage everybody to come forward and bring their family, their children,\u201d said Dr. Ibrahim Khan, regional medical health officer with Indigenous Services Canada.<\/p>\n
He emphasized the vulnerability of Indigenous communities to illnesses that can spread easily in close quarters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s not just individual protection. If you get the flu vaccine, you not only protect yourself, you protect your family and you protect your community,” he said.<\/p>\n
Dr. Saqib Shahab, Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer, noted that while everyone should get the vaccines, risk levels vary significantly across age groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are 50 and older with underlying risk factors, or 65 and older, anyone who is immunosuppressed, if you’re pregnant \u2014 these are all the risk groups who will benefit from a yearly fall COVID vaccine as well as influenza vaccine,\u201d he said, before receiving the vaccines himself.<\/p>\n
The vaccines will be given for free, and are available at public health clinics and participating pharmacies. The Saskatchewan Health Authority said vaccines are also available at some doctors’ and nurse practitioners’ offices.<\/p>\n
In Canada, the flu season typically runs from November to April. While deaths and hospitalizations from the flu are rare, they can still lead to complications.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In its most recent Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Coverage survey, the Canadian government found that about 42 per cent of all adults took the seasonal vaccine. That number was higher among seniors aged 65 and above, of whom 73 per cent took the vaccine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
About 81 per cent of the Canadian population has taken at least one COVID-19 vaccine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr. Tania Diener, a medical health officer with the provincial health authority, acknowledged there is some vaccine hesitancy among the population, but that resources are available to answer people’s concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI really would like to encourage anyone who has questions about the vaccine and who’s not sure whether they should take it or not, not just for influenza and COVID vaccines, but any other vaccines \u2026 please speak to your public health nurse,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease speak to a health-care provider that can help you make an informed decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
To book an appointment, residents can use the health authority’s online booking system<\/a> or call 1-833-727-5829 to organize one over the phone. A list of walk-in clinics is also available online<\/a>. <\/p>\n LISTEN | How to protect ourselves from fall and winter respiratory viruses:<\/p>\n The Dose25:19How can we protect ourselves from fall and winter respiratory viruses?<\/p>\n It\u2019s respiratory virus season again, and experts say to look out for the flu, COVID-19 and RSV. Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Allison McGeer explains what the data shows about how severe this year might be, as well as how Canadians can protect themselves.
\nFor transcripts of The Dose, please visit:\u00a0lnk.to\/dose-transcripts [https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/radio\/podcastnews\/the-dose-transcripts-listen-1.6732281]. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. For more episodes of this podcast,\u00a0click this link [https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-dose\/id1498259551].
\nFill out our listener survey\u00a0here [https:\/\/insightscanada.qualtrics.com\/jfe\/form\/SV_bfIcbmcQYPwjUrk?Podcast=The%20Dose&Prize=No ]. We appreciate your input!\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Annual flu shots and COVID-19 vaccinations are now available for all provincial residents aged six months and older.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":["post-75442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}