WHO GETS IT AND WHEN?
Top doc reveals shot rollout
The medical officer of health for Windsor-essex is expressing confidence in the local health unit's ability to get COVID-19 shots in the arms of more than 400,000 people by September.
Dr. Wajid Ahmed on Wednesday presented the bones of a plan to tackle the “massive undertaking,” including the order in which residents will receive the vaccine at mass immunization clinics and the responsibilities of various community groups in accomplishing the months-long task.
“We have a huge task between now and up until August to make sure we are vaccinating the majority of the people in Windsor-essex,” Ahmed said.
The Windsor-essex County Health Unit is at the helm of the local COVID-19 vaccine rollout committee, which has members from eight other sectors, including local political leaders, Indigenous leaders, pharmacists and home and community care partners. They will be responsible for supporting the immunization of various population groups like adults receiving chronic home care and the Indigenous population, as well as providing the municipal infrastructure needed for the rollout.
Also on the committee are representatives from local hospitals, first responders, non-hospital physicians and post-secondary schools.
“It does require a lot of collaboration, a lot of work. We see that there is a lot of work ahead of us, and we want to make sure that we all come together, we work in a systematic way.”
Phase 1 of the province's vaccine distribution plan identifies the top priority groups for immunization: residents, staff and essential caregivers at long-term care and retirement homes (roughly 10,000 people); health-care workers (11,000 people); adults in remote First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities (the number of which is not identified in the health unit's draft plan); and adult recipients of chronic home care (7,000 people). In Windsor-essex, the local health unit and Windsor Regional Hospital have already inoculated most of those associated with long-term care and retirement homes.
Phase 1 is expected to last until “maybe sometime in February or March,” Ahmed said.
Phase 2 of the vaccine plan is expected to begin immediately after, “when we start to see significant and steady increase in vaccine supply not only in Windsor-essex, but throughout the country.” It starts with essential workers, of which there are an estimated 35,000 in Windsor-essex. Adults age 75 and older are next, followed by those ages 60 to 75 (approximately 84,000 people).
Then about 30,000 residents belonging to “at-risk populations” get the jab, with the remaining 200,000 adults and children last.
To inoculate nearly 350,000 people in Phase 2, the health unit intends to hold mass immunization clinics and have other clinics led by primary care providers. The vaccine will also be offered at some area pharmacies, much like the flu shot.
In September, Phase 3 will begin. During that time, people who have just arrived in the region or who were previously unable to receive a shot will be able to access one. By that time, everyone who wanted the jab in the region and was eligible for it will have received it, Ahmed said. Ineligible individuals include those with a fever or acute illness, or who had an active case of COVID -19 when they were supposed to be immunized.
Ahmed said he expects as many as 8,000 people will be vaccinated each day in Windsor-essex at the height of the rollout, with roughly 4,000 daily injections on more typical days.
Currently, he said, the health unit and Windsor Regional Hospital have the capacity to deliver between 1,500 and 2,000 shots per day, but they only have the supply to administer between 800 and 1,000.
“It will be crucial that we are all in this together and we continue to work together,” Ahmed said.
“I feel pretty confident with my team. I think our team has proven time and time (again) to be delivering what we promised — and whatever we promised we actually delivered much better.”