Province not considering further incentives for COVID-19 vaccination

Further incentives, like a lottery, are not being considered to encourage Saskatchewan residents to get a vaccine.

“We have an extremely good uptake here in Saskatchewan,” said Paul Merriman, the provincial health minister, in a June 8 media conference. “We've set the targets at 70 per cent. We're going to achieve those targets.”

The opposition New Democrats have proposed a lottery to encourage people to get vaccinated. The proposal who sees every Saskatchewan resident who receives two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine entered into a draw for $25,000 – approximately the cost of admining a COVID-19 patient into an intensive care unit.

“An incentive like the one we propose here today would be an excellent way to get all hands on deck – especially as we are still in a race between the vaccines and the variants, particularly the Delta variant that is more aggressive and resistant,” said Ryan Meili, the NDP’s leader.

In the Central East Zone – which includes Humboldt, Yorkton and Melville, there were 51,333 doses of vaccine given on May 18. That increased by 4,002 by May 25, 4,556 by June 1 and 6,449 by June 8.

In the North East Zone, there were 21,408 doses of vaccine given on May 18. That increased by 1,980 by May 25, 2,206 by June 1 and 3,208 by June 8.

“The vaccine uptake has slowed a little bit as of late, but I think there's many factors in that: the weather's getting nicer, we're getting into a lower age demographic that is very busy, that is working,” Merriman said. “We've offered incentives for people to go get vaccinated, like paid three hours off of work time.”

The health minister said the government is reaching out to post-secondary institutions and newcomer centres to promote vaccination, as well as having educators on site at the vaccine clinics to answer any questions.
 

Central East vaccinations

North East vaccinations