COVID-19 vaccine clinic opens for priority people

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The first local COVID-19 vaccine was administered to a long-term care worker in Barrie on Tuesday.
The Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) is leading the “historic and complex” immunization roll out across Simcoe County and the District of Muskoka in partnership with Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre and the City of Barrie.  
SMDHU nurses will administer the vaccine to a limited number of prioritized people beginning with long-term care healthcare workers. The vaccine will not be broadly available to the general public until sometime in 2021 and it is expected it will take another six to nine months to immunize all Ontarians who opt to get the vaccine.
“This is wonderful news for all of us and cause for real optimism, but it is a complex endeavour,” said Dr. Charles Gardner, SMDHU’s medical officer of health. “It will take some time for us, working together with our partners, to roll out mass immunization for all of our residents who want it.”
“In the meantime it is critical that we don’t let our guard down,” he said. “We must continue to practice those public health measures that will keep us and our loved ones safe until we are all able to be vaccinated. Wear a mask, physically distance from those outside our households, wash your hands frequently, stay home if sick and get tested for COVID-19 if you have symptoms, are still critical to reducing and preventing transmission of the virus.”
An initial allocation of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will soon be distributed to Simcoe Muskoka, with more to arrive in the weeks ahead. At this time it will only be offered by invitation and appointment to priority groups, which include: residents, staff, essential caregivers, and employees of long-term care homes and retirement homes; health care workers, including hospital employees, other staff who work or study in hospitals, and other health care personnel; adults in Indigenous communities, including remote communities where risk of transmission is high; and adult recipients of chronic home health care.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, approved by Health Canada on Dec. 9 and supported to be safe and effective by very robust scientific data and evidence, must be stored at temperatures below -70°C which RVH has the infrastructure to support. As additional vaccines are approved by Health Canada, vaccination and distribution will be expanded.
“This is the most significant and complex immunization effort in modern medicine, and although the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine is an important milestone, the distribution of the COVID vaccine is extremely complex,” said Janice Skot, RVH’s president and chief executive officer. “Although hospital workers have been identified as a priority population, limited availability of the Pfizer vaccine means that hospital staff and physicians won’t be vaccinated until January. But after a tough nine months, there’s hope that our lives can begin to get back to normal in late 2021.”
The immunization clinic will share the same building, but separate space, with RVH’s COVID-19 testing and assessment centre, with 24/7 security on site. 
For more information, visit the health unit’s website at simcoemuskokahealth.org or call Health Connection at 705-721-7520 (1-877-721-7520). More information about the vaccine and immunization can also be found at ontario.ca.

Photo: A health unit nurse administered the first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this week to Lori Black, a Barrie-based personal services worker on the frontline caring for vulnerable seniors at Victoria Village long-term care home. She is among the first priority group to be immunized by invitation only in the first phase of the roll out at the COVID-19 Immunization Clinic.

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