Pfizer vaccine doses will be reserved for youth, says Yukon's top doc

Yukon is preparing to start administering shots of the Pfizer-BioNTechCOVID-19 vaccine starting next week but those shotswon't be for just anyone.

Yukon's chief medical officer says adults in the territory will continue to receive the Modernavaccine the only one available to them so far whilethe new Pfizer doses will be reserved for youth aged 12 to 17.

"We do have a limited supply [of Pfizer] that needs to be specifically allocated to the intended demographic," Dr. Brendan Hanley said at a news conference on Wednesday morning.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was approved by Health Canada earlier this month, for use in anyone aged 12 and up. Yukon then lobbied Ottawa for some doses to be sent to the territory.

Clinics will begin next week in rural communities and in Whitehorse. Hanley said those will be solely for youth, while adults can still access the Moderna vaccine elsewhere.

Hanley also said that adultswho havereceived a first dose of Pfizer elsewhere in Canada and now need their second jabin Yukon will also get the Modernashot. The second shot does not need to be the same brand as the first, he said.

"I am completely confident that their immunity to COVID-19 is just as good as with twodoses of either vaccine," he said.

Watch Wednesday's news conference here:

Vaccine verification system 'can be worked out very shortly'

As of Tuesday, the territory had no active cases of COVID-19. There have been a total of 84 cases confirmed in Yukon since the start of the pandemic.

Also as of Tuesday, about 77 per cent of eligible adults had received their first shot of vaccine, and 69 per cent had received their second shot.

The territory has eased some more pandemic-related restrictions this week, including dropping the requirement to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival in Yukon for anybody who isfully vaccinated.

Yukon Premier Sandy Silver said Wednesday a day after the new rules took effect that the verification system is still a work in progress. Officials can easily verify vaccination status for Yukon and B.C. residents right now, he said, but it gets murkier for people coming from elsewhere.

In other words, it's not clear how officials might verify you're vaccinated if you arrive today from, say, Alberta.

"I think the details of this can be worked out very shortly," Silver said.

Anybody who can't prove they've had their second shot at least 14 days prior to arrival must self-isolate for 14 days, as before.

Also this week,the governmentextended the territory's state of emergency for up to 90 more days.

Silver said at Wednesday's news conference that the state of emergency allows Yukon to enact public health measures.

"These measures have helped keep Yukon safe, over the past year-plus. And we need to keep them in place for now," he said.

Hanley also said the pandemic is not over though he noted a change in the public mood lately.

"I feel and I welcome a new sense of calm in the territory. There is not the fear that was palpable before, when we announced new cases," he said.