THUNDER BAY – An increase in the number of vaccines allocated to the district has meant thousands of frontline health care workers most at risk will be receiving the COVID-19 vaccine in the coming days.
“We are really pleased we had a significant increase in our vaccine allocation this week,” said Rhonda Crocker Ellacott, president and CEO of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
“Based on that supply and working with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, what we have been able to do is move forward with the immediate vaccination of health care workers who are in the highest priority group. What that has meant is 3,000 health care workers between TBRHSC and St. Joseph’s Care Group will be vaccinated in the coming days.”
Health care workers have been prioritized based on directives from the Ministry of Health and the TBRHSC and St. Joseph’s Care Group have been working internally to prioritize staff based on vulnerability and critically.
“Through that process, these 3,000 individuals were prioritized to receive the vaccine first,” Crocker Ellacott said. “Prior to that, about 1,000 individuals were vaccinated. But we have a total of 6,000 health care workers between Thunder Bay Regional and St. Joseph’s Care Group so we still have likely 2,000 left to go once this is complete.”
The increase in vaccination comes a week after the TBRHSC opened a new vaccination centre in the Bora Laskin Building on the Lakehead University campus, allowing more than 750 frontline health care workers to be immunized daily.
The vaccination centre has a limit of approximately 750 vaccinations a day but Crocker Ellacott said the staff have been working exceptionally hard in the past few days and pushing that to more than 800.
“We are hopeful we will continue to receive higher vaccine allocation so we can really move vaccines out to further priority groups out into the community,’ Crocker Ellacott said.
The TBRHSC will be out of doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday, with more shipments expected next week and weekly shipments following. It is also on track for administering all its second doses within the 35-day window.
Health Canada also recently approved the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for use in the country. Crocker Ellacott could not comment specifically on if this new approval will mean an increase in the number of doses allocated for the north but she said it is welcome news.
“Every time a new vaccine is approved it gives the potential for more vaccines across the province and the country,” she said. “The quicker you can get vaccine in the arm the more chance you have to develop immunity.”
And while number of vaccinations being administered in the city is climbing, with more than 10,000 expected to be complete by Monday since the vaccination centre opened on Feb. 18, there is still a long way to go.
Following the immunization of frontline health care workers, the next priority groups, which are determined by the Ministry of Health in consultation with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit at a local level, will still include community health care workers, vulnerable members of the population, and emergency response staff.
“What we look to be doing next is health care workers in the community, those front facing dealing with individuals in the community, high risk populations, including fire, police, all of those populations are prioritized early,” Crocker Ellacott said.
The vaccination centre at the Bora Laskin Building is also just one of many sites immunizing high priority groups in the city, with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit also holding clinics alongside other community partners, including organizations vaccinating vulnerable members of the population.
“Our site is merely one of what will be many sites across the community with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit taking the lead on that,” Crocker Ellacott said.
“I know the Thunder Bay District Health Unit has a plan they are looking to execute in the next week or two. I know they are looking to operate a mass vaccination site. As well there are times when vaccines are brought with support of EMS or others to a community or a congregate and different places vaccinate a particular group.”
source tbnewswatch