600 volunteers offer to help with mass immunizations
City to provide up to 15 staff members for the effort; people can still sign up to take part
More than 600 people have already volunteered to help run mass immunization clinics against COVID-19 in Peterborough in the summer and fall, said medical officer of health Dr. Rosana Salvaterra.
Salvaterra put out a call on Feb. 1 at a city committee meeting for volunteers to sign up on the Peterborough Public Health web page. She said at the health unit’s virtual pandemic press briefing on Tuesday — 15 days after the initial call — that more than 600 people have responded.
Salvaterra called it “an overwhelming response,” and said her team at PPH is now processing all those submissions.
Anyone still interested in signing up can do so on the health unit’s webpage in the careers section, she added.
“I am so grateful to our community for this strong show of support,” she said. “It makes me proud to see everyone pulling together to get us through this next important step in keeping us all healthy.”
Volunteers will help direct and register people at the clinics, Salvaterra told council on Feb. 1. She said then some retired health-care professionals have also said they’re interested in helping administer vaccines.
In addition to the volunteers, city council is interested in seconding up to 15 staff members to help the immunization effort; they will carry out tasks such as arranging mass transportation to the vaccination sites (using shuttle buses, for example) setting up signage and barricades or arranging for security.
Few details have been settled yet for the mass vaccination clinics, but they could potentially be carried out in large municipal multi-purpose rooms, parking garages or parking lots.
Women and Gender Equality Minister Maryam Monsef, the MP For Peterborough-Kawartha, took part in the health unit’s noon-hour press briefing and thanked people for volunteering.
“This is what makes Peterborough so very special,” she said. “This is why I’m hopeful about the future.”
So far the health unit has administered 976 first doses of the Moderna vaccine to all residents of the eight long-term-care homes in the city and county who wanted and were able to get the vaccine, along with some long-term-care home staff members and alternate level of care patients at Peterborough Regional Health Centre who are awaiting placement in a long-term-care home. There have been no further vaccinations because new shipments of vaccine are not expected until next week.
NOTE: To volunteer with the health unit at the mass vaccination clinics visit peterboroughpublichealth.ca/about-us/ careers/.