Limited vaccinations to begin next week

Local health officials will start a “limited” rollout of COVID-19 vaccines starting next week.

Windsor Regional Hospital said in a media release that employees at long-term care and retirement homes will be the first to get vaccinated.

The province's first focus is workers at care homes who are in grey and red zones but not experiencing an outbreak, the hospital said.

Each person will require two doses of the Pfizer-biontech COVID-19 vaccines, of which there is currently a limited supply.

The hospital and the Windsor-essex County Health Unit are co-ordinating the effort.

Health officials said they can't confirm the number of doses they'll receive or the exact date for initial vaccinations.

The employees will be independently scheduled for inoculation. Those receiving it must go to where the vaccine is being kept because it has to be stored in freezers at -80 C until clinically prepared for inoculation.

As more vaccines become available, the hospital and the health unit will continue to follow the government's priority list, which focuses on four groups.

Those groups include residents, staff, essential caregivers and other employees of congregate living settings that provide care for seniors; 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.