The Government of Saskatchewan announced it will be moving into Phase 2 of its vaccination rollout plan.

The new phase will allow people under the age of 70 to receive their vaccines in decreasing age order.

Health Minister Paul Merriman says it’s exciting to be able to offer vaccines to more people, sooner than expected.

“We’ve seen an increase in the amount of vaccines from the federal government from when we rolled out our plan a few weeks ago, those numbers have increased, which is a good problem for us to be able to manage,” said Merriman. “It does accelerate our timelines a bit, and we’re happy to be able to roll this out, Phase 2, a few weeks early.”

With many people wanting to choose which of the four available vaccines they receive, Merriman says all of them are equally safe an effective.

“Take the first vaccine available to you, they’re all very good quality vaccines. I would personally take each one and would have no problem giving that to any member of my family,” said Merriman. “Right now, our demand for the vaccine certainly outweighs the opportunity to have options, they’re all good quality, and take whichever one you can.”

When asked if the government has done enough to limit the spread of COVID-19 variants in Regina, Merriman says the measures put in place in December are adequate.

“We’ve only changed one public health measure in Saskatchewan since mid-December, so they are very stringent health measures,” said Merriman. “I think that, coupled with the vaccine deployment that we have had in Regina, the normal vaccine deployment, plus the extra vaccine deployment, and compliance with that, maintaining all, but just changing the one restriction.

As of Thursday afternoon, people over the age of 67 are able to book an appointment to receive their vaccine, and people aged 60-64, 67-69 are eligible to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine at the Regina Drive-Thru.