LTC residents should be top priority: Hirji
Vaccinating vulnerable residents will save lives, says Niagara public health leader
Niagara acting medical officer of health Dr. Mustafa Hirji is confident public health staff could vaccinate everyone in Niagara’s long-term-care homes within a few weeks, if they had enough vaccine and were given approval to distribute it.
Instead, he said most public health departments — including Niagara’s — are so far being excluded from the process of vaccination distribution across Ontario, as the province prioritizes front-line health-care workers over vulnerable longterm-care home residents.
“That’s quite concerning to me,” he said, speaking to regional councillors during a COVID-19 status update on Friday. “Absolutely the workers are a priority to get vaccine, but the people who are dying right now are the long-term-care home and retirement home residents. That needs to be the top priority and (the province) needs to prioritize some of this vaccine to be going out to that group.”
Hirji on Friday said 87 people have died after being diagnosed with COVID-19 since Dec. 21 — two more deaths were added on the weekend — and at least 70 of them were long-term carehome residents. Meanwhile, more than 62 per cent of Niagara’s long-term-care homes are experiencing outbreaks.
An additional three fatalities were reported by Niagara Health on Friday afternoon, bringing the total deaths of people who had been diagnosed with the virus to at least 189 since the pandemic began. That figure rose to 191 deaths Sunday.
Hirji said Niagara’s health department already works with long- term- care homes throughout the region, ensuring residents receive seasonal influenza vaccinations.
“The province needs to give some vaccine to the hospitals but give it to us. We work with long-term care everywhere to get their flu vaccines done. We can get the long-term-care homes vaccinated against COVID-19 and really stop the tragedy of death that we’re seeing in those locations,” he said. “If we get the vaccine, I think we can get those vaccinations done quickly and really stop these outbreaks, really restore the health of our long-term-care home sector, stop people from dying, most importantly.”
By reducing the sickness at long-term-care homes, he said it will help hospitals cope with increasing numbers of patients.
Hirji said the best scenario would be for both the front-line workers as well as long-termcare home residents to be vaccinated. But by vaccinating the residents first, it ensures they are protected from others they may be in contact with.
“They’re the people who are dying. I want to make sure the people who are dying have protection.”
While the Pfizer vaccine requires specialized equipment that is now only available in hospitals, he said a vaccine produced by Moderna could be easily distributed by public health units.
“We would love the Moderna vaccine and we are really pushing the province to try to give us some,” he said.
However, Hirji said if only the Pfizer vaccine is available, public health officials will still be able to use it to vaccinate longterm-care home residents.
“We can still get in there and start vaccinating residents and making sure they don’t pass away,” he said. “We just need the province to say that it’s not just for workers, it’s also for the residents and we can save the lives of many residents as a result.”
He said the province is planning to expand its overall vaccination program to include three public health agencies distributing the Moderna vaccine.
While that’s “good news” and could be an indication that the province is “starting to bring public health into the fold,” Hirji said there are far more public health agencies in Ontario that should also have access to it — including Niagara.
“This number needs to be going up very quickly to 34, and that needs to of course include us because we’re seeing far too many people dying of COVID-19,” he said.