Vaccine clinics for some priority groups could start as early as this weekend, according to the region's top doctor.
Porcupine Health Unit medical officer of health Dr. Lianne Catton provided an update of the local vaccine plan and COVID-19 situation in the region today.
To date, more than 3,900 vaccines have been given. That includes 3,200 first doses and over 720 second doses, said Catton.
Those numbers are for the lower Porcupine Health Unit region.
Operation Remote Immunity has been delivering in Moosonee and First Nation communities along the James Bay coast. As of March 8, all the eligible people in the Town of Moosonee and 31 remote communities had received their first doses of the vaccine.
The health unit is currently in the first phase of the vaccine rollout. Highlights of the local initiative, according to Catton's update, are:
- By the end of today, all long-term care, high-risk retirement home and First Nation Elder care residents who consented to the vaccine will have received their second dose.
- First doses have been given to staff and essential caregivers at these facilities.
- Retirement home residents, staff and essential caregivers have been offered vaccines
- The health unit is working with hospitals to vaccinate eligible alternate level of care patients. In the first phase, these include people who have a confirmed bed in a retirement or long-term care home, and people over the age of 80.
- There have been clinics for high-priority healthcare workers, which are determined by the province, in hospitals across the region.
- Clinics have been offered for chronic homecare recipients.
- At the end of today, the health unit will have completed Indigenous adults over the age of 55 in the four road access First Nation communities the organization has been working with.
“We are looking at announcing some vaccine clinics within the next two weeks, as early as this weekend and next week. We’re just confirming the space and locations of everything which has been a tremendous undertaking,” she said.
These clinics are expected to be for people over the age of 80 and the urban Indigenous population over the age of 55.
When the clinics are confirmed, Catton said the health unit will provide direction on how to book an appointment. Until the provincial online system launches, bookings will be through the health unit's existing online booking system used for flu clinics. Health unit staff will be available for people who have challenges with technology.
“And please be patient because we recognize there will not be enough clinic appointments for everyone in those groups at this point,” she said, adding further clinics will be announced as more vaccines are available.
To date, there have been 342 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the region. Of those, 313 are recovered and 25 people have died — 16 of those were linked to the Extendicare Kapuskasing outbreak. There are four known active cases.
There has been one confirmed case of the South African variant of concern in Timmins. A second test flagged for a variant is expected to be the same strain.
Even though the COVID-19 numbers across the province have been decreasing or stabilizing, Catton said the increasing number of variants is a concern.
“That’s where we really need to be extremely cautious moving forward. We recognize this as a public health system and the case and contact management direction and how we are responding to every case now is really in line with what we would do assuming that it is a variant of concern,” she said.
Right now, the Porcupine Health Unit region is in the orange level of the province's COVID-19 Regional Response Framework.
The restriction level is determined by the province and based on a number of factors such as case counts, outbreaks, and more. An update on if the region will stay at the same level is expected later this week.
Generally the assessment of moving levels is made every two weeks. However, Catton noted if there's a significant change it can be done sooner. Sudbury, for example, moved up to the red level this week.
There are COVID-19 assessment centres in Timmins, Cochrane, Iroquois Falls, Kapuskasing, Smooth Rock Falls, Hearst, and Hornepayne.
The Porcupine Health Unit COVID-19 information line can be reached at 705-267-1181 or 1-800-461-1818.
