Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I know that our now that we have the majority of people vaccinated, the vaccine uptake is is not what it used to be. And so my question for the Minister of Health is when the current stock of vaccines expires in the NWT and what we are doing to ensure we don't have any wastage? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and my thanks to the Member for the question. The current stock of vaccine that we have expires at the end of May, and specifically that's Pediatric Pfizer and Moderna. So we continue to offer clinics, and we hope to use up much of that inventory by the end of May. We can provide either appointments or walkin vaccinations, whichever is most convenient for people.
We, as the Member may know, switched from a nowasted dose to nomissedopportunity to vaccinate people some time ago. So our vanishingly small wastage rate has increased a little so that we can vaccinate someone when they appear instead of telling them to come back at another time. So our wastage rate is 6 percent. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. With those vaccines expiring in May, I'm hoping the Minister can speak to you know, I understand the principle of nomissed opportunity but I think we have somewhat of a predictable rate of how much we anticipate to use, whether it's possible to coordinate the logistics to make sure that we can get those into the arms of people who need them, whether that be in other places in Canada or other countries in the world. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the vaccines that come to the Northwest Territories come from the federal stockpile. You need a specific licence, I've learned, in order to reallocate unused vaccine outside of the Northwest Territories. So we try to order only as much vaccine as we need so that the federal government has a grip on how much surplus they have to devote to other parts of the country or to other parts of the world as the Member referenced. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that. And I know the Canadian supply, Canada is working to improve its contribution to global vaccine equity. We probably have not lived up to the covax commitments as we should. But I know we're a small jurisdiction and I'm just hoping the Minister of Health can add her voice and make sure when she speaks with her federal colleagues that we are adding our support to meet the covax requirements and to make sure that vaccine equity is a priority. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member and I are entirely on the same page. We will not be able to substantially reduce the COVID infection rates if we are not all globally vaccinated.
I have certainly advocated for greater vaccination allocations to the global south, as the Member called it, and I know that my colleague, the Premier, has also done that. We understand the vulnerability of some of those populations. They're very much like the vulnerability of our own Indigenous population in terms of poor underlying health conditions and poor health outcomes. And so obviously getting vaccine to those people is extremely important, and we support all efforts to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
