Ryan Meili calls on the government to allow all residents of Saskatchewan aged 18 and older able to receive their COVID-19 booster shot on Dec. 3, 2021. (Libby GIesbrecht/650 CKOM)

By Libby Giesbrecht/ CJME News

Sask. NDP want booster shots available to anyone 18 and older

Dec 3, 2021 | 3:35 PM

Saskatchewan NDP leader Ryan Meili wants to see boosters made available for anyone over the age of 18 in the province.

The physician town hall on Dec. 2 revealed that Saskatchewan is due for a fifth wave. The new Omicron variant also has Meili raising concerns about how protected Saskatchewan residents are.

“That includes the concern around waning immunity — those people who have their shots and that shot starts to work less over time. They need the booster,” Meili said.

The NDP leader wants to see a plan put in place to make a possible fifth wave as minimal as possible.

“We saw how badly things went with the fourth wave, we need to learn the lesson,” he added.

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Widespread vaccination, Meili said, will be key to that.

Meili said the province has not done enough to encourage vaccinations for children between the ages of five and 11 as part of that, citing premier Scott Moe’s Twitter silence in endorsing the shot for kids since they received approval from Health Canada on Nov. 19.

He added the province’s education minister has “refused” to encourage vaccination, and has gotten “in the way of school divisions in the midst of outbreaks trying to keep kids safe.”

Meili also said requiring parents to be with their children when they receive their shot at school during the day — rather than requiring a consent form as is standard for other vaccines administered at school — is a barrier that has been imposed by the province’s health minister.

“Instead of promoting kids vaccines, the premier and his cabinet have been getting in the way,” Meili said.

With plans in place or being developed in B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Manitoba for people over 18 to have access to their booster dose, Meili wants to see Saskatchewan follow suit.

“We’re calling on this government to immediately decrease the age of eligibility and give us a plan and a date for when everybody over 18 can go get that third dose, make sure that they’re fully protected.”