(Saskatchewan Health Authority/Submitted)

By CJME News

Regina woman offers first-hand look at getting COVID vaccine

Dec 19, 2020 | 9:22 AM

What is it like to get a COVID-19 vaccine?

One Regina woman thinks it’s fairly similar to getting any other kind of vaccine.

Jill Straker works at the drive-through COVID testing site on the grounds of Evraz Place, so she has already been vaccinated.

She shared her first-hand experience Friday with The Greg Morgan Morning Show.

“I was really anxious going for it. I don’t know if it’s just because, to me, it’s the beginning of the end and I hope that’s what it is. I was excited to go and I was happy to be part of it,” she said.

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“The other part of me was the anxiety of, ‘Someone else should be getting this, someone elderly, someone with a compromised immune system, someone who really, really needs it’ … But overall I was excited and happy to be one of the first and part of, hopefully, something that’s going to change the world for us.”

As for the process of getting the needle in her arm, Straker said it was very smooth, saying it was even easier than getting a seasonal flu shot.

“The needle is actually smaller … It was so quick. They went over the questions, asked me if I had any questions, then in and out like a fiddler’s elbow, we’ll say,” she said.

As with getting any other shot, she also had to wait about 15 minutes to make sure she didn’t have an allergic reaction.

Since the Pfizer vaccine — the only one approved so far in Canada — requires two doses, Straker is to return for a second dose Jan. 7.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority and the provincial government started the pilot project of their vaccination distribution plan Tuesday in Regina, with a doctor and nurse each getting their first shots.

The pilot will see 1,950 health-care workers in Regina — including those who work in the intensive care units, emergency departments and COVID units at the General and Pasqua hospitals, as well as staff at testing and assessment centres — get vaccinated.

The first phase of the program is to begin next week in Saskatoon, after another shipment of Pfizer’s vaccine arrives. Those who are to receive the shots in that phase are 1,950 health-care workers from the Saskatoon area.