With a territorial election looming, the Yukon government has extended the territory’s state of emergency for another 90 days.

The move was announced during this morning’s weekly COVID-19 briefing by Premier Sandy Silver with little fanfare.

The extension comes with no new cases of the virus reported for the second consecutive week, making the timing somewhat puzzling.

When Silver was asked point-blank about the timing of the election by a reporter from The Rush radio station, he responded with a curt “I’m not here to talk about the election.”

In a news release following the briefing, the government stated “this extension is critical to supporting the health, safety and economic well-being of Yukoners, and ensures that all ministerial orders enacted under the state of emergency remain in place, including the requirement for those entering the territory to self-isolate for 14 days.”

As has been the case in recent weeks and months, Silver and Dr. Brendan Hanley, the chief medical officer of health, doubled down on the importance of following the Safe Six Plus One for unknown months to come, as well as stressing the importance of Yukoners getting vaccinated.

Both men bristled somewhat when questioned about their fixation on vaccines and the importance of getting more people to come out to the clinics.

The focus is confusing, since they also were praising Yukoners for their very-willing acceptance of the shots.

In fact, the government booking system has crashed repeatedly as it was overwhelmed by demand in the last two weeks.

On Monday, the Whitehorse clinic processed 1,000 people, Silver said.

It’s expected the clinics, at the Yukon Convention Centre, will handle an average of 850 people a day or more, he said.

The number of people vaccinated Yukon-wide is approaching 12,000, meaning nearly half of the adult population in the territory has been vaccinated at least once.

According to the news release, as of the end of the day on Monday, there had been 17,168 doses of the Moderna vaccine administered in Yukon. This number includes 11,503 first doses and 5,665 second doses.

“Vaccines are our pathway out of this (the pandemic),” Silver said.

He noted the Yukon is “months ahead” of the rest of Canada in its vaccination rollout.

The premier was questioned about the need to keep the rollout at the highest priority level in light of those numbers. He objected to the notion the government is trying to “oversell” the vaccines, or “flogging them too hard.”

“No, we’re not flogging a dead horse,” he said with a touch of irritation.

Hanley echoed those sentiments, but added that health officials were aware that an undefined proportion of the population was “vaccine-hesitant.” He didn’t make an attempt to put a number to those who were reluctant to embrace the program.

“We know people are hesitating,” he said. “It’s a reality.”

That’s why the government continues to promote its vaccine program at every opportunity, Hanley said. It’s an effort to reach those people and persuade them to line up for a shot regardless of their concerns.

Both Silver and Hanley were on the receiving end of a number of pointed questions from the media this morning in an unusually intense grilling.

For the third straight week, Hanley and Silver were asked to provide the numbers on how well the vaccine program is doing.

The duo has released numbers on how many vaccine shots have been carried out – but hasn’t broken them down by community. Nor have they provided an overall percentage of vaccine acceptance in the adult community.

Silver said he isn’t interested in making the community numbers public.

He said doing so would pit “communities against each other,” and he isn’t willing to follow that “divisive” route.

“I won’t pit communities against each other,” he said.

Both he and Hanley once again declined to provide any framework or benchmarks on when Yukoners could possibly see the health restrictions begin to be lifted.

Hanley acknowledged that people are becoming “fatigued” with the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, but exhorted them to be patient and hang in a while longer.

“We’re in a nebulous time,” Hanley said. “We’re alway managing the risk of importation (for COVID-19). Our strategy has always been risk-based.”

He pointed once again to the potential danger of the so-called variants of the virus that are cropping up all over Canada as a reason to be cautious.

Silver said “we see the finish line, but there are variables we can’t control and we’re not going to speculate.”