‘Like a war zone’ LTC residents describe bleakness of prolonged isolation,

Province will delay shots for health-care workers to ensure vaccine supply

Ontario is accelerating COVID-19 vaccinations of nursing-home residents by making health-care workers wait longer for their shots amid a shortage of doses and mounting concern over a more contagious variant linked to a deadly outbreak in Barrie.

The goal is now to complete a first round of jabs in long-termcare, high-risk retirement homes and among First Nations elders by Feb. 5, 10 days earlier than planned, Premier Doug Ford said Monday.

Public health officials said they are trying to get a handle on the new strain found in at least 60 countries by improving detection capability to 1,500 followup tests next week.

“We still don’t have the full picture because we have not tested everyone to date,” said Dr. Vanessa Allen, chief of medical microbiology at Public Health Ontario.

There are now 34 confirmed cases of the variant first identified in the U.K. in Ontario, more than double the level identified a week ago. Cases have been found in the GTA, Barrie and Middlesex-London.

“It may be more prevalent than we think,” said chief medical officer Dr. David Williams, who added the timing of the stay-at-home order that took effect Dec. 26 to combat rising cases of COVID-19 could end up being “fortuitous” in hindsight. “It may be holding it at bay.”

Giving the most vulnerable seniors in care homes priority for shots means delaying jabs for health-care workers, along with essential caregivers who are allowed to visit, Ford said.

“We have to ensure we’re able to deliver the second dose,” the premier told a news conference.

The change in timing was prompted by vaccine manufacturer Pfizer’s decision to cut back on deliveries to Canada temporarily while it retools a Belgian factory to boost production levels. Ontario was supposed to get 80,000 doses this week and another 80,000 next week, but that has been reduced to zero and 26,325.

Meeting the target date could be tight, said retired general Rick Hillier, who heads Ontario’s vaccination program. “We actually are dependent on some vaccines arriving next week to complete these homes.”

One senior official said the situation — which includes a lightning-fast outbreak at Roberta Place nursing home in Barrie that involves the U.K. variant and where at least 40 residents have died — makes it clear that care homes need to be vaccinated “as soon as we can.”

Residents of a retirement lodge next door to Roberta Place have also now been vacci- nated. More than 3,000 residents in long-term care across the province have died in the pandemic, accounting for the majority of Ontario’s fatalities. There were 29 more nursinghome deaths reported Monday, with another 114 residents and 67 staff testing positive for the virus.

Critics said the scramble could have been prevented if Ontario’s strategy had focused on vaccinating long-care residents first instead of including health-care workers and essential caregivers in the initial rollout.

Provincial officials said health-care workers with appointments for first shots could see them cancelled or rescheduled.