Hospitals within the Saskatoon space are getting ready to obtain over 60,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine within the coming days

HOUSTON – Hospitals in the Saskatoon area prepare for the first allocation of the COVID-19 vaccine. Nearly 60,000 doses of the vaccine are expected to be distributed to hospitals in the coming days.

According to Memorial Hermann, they receive 16,475 cans.

The state provided guidelines on who could receive that initial allocation of the vaccine. The decision on the number of doses was based, according to Dr. David Callender, President of Memorial Hermann, on a survey on the number of COVID-19 patients treated, hospitalized and the number of staff treating patients with COVID-19.

Callender said front workers will be the first to be vaccinated.

“We actually sent the planning links to employees who are in the first phase today,” he said.

Twenty-one hospitals in Harris County, four in Montgomery County, one in Galveston County, and one in Fort Bend County were selected to receive the vaccine.

Michael E. Debakey VA Medical Center was selected, including just one of 37 VA hospitals selected. The deputy chief of medicine, Dr. Prathit Kulkarni said frontline workers and veterans who are at high risk will be eligible to take the vaccine once it arrives.

Kulkarni said there had been questions and concerns about the vaccine, but he was confident it had undergone rigorous evaluation and testing.

“These studies showed that when you literally vaccinated tens of thousands of people, there wasn’t a big signal of safety concerns,” Kulkarni said.

Copyright 2020 by KPRC Click2Saskatoon – All rights reserved.