TimminsToday received this letter regarding the local COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
I have been following the vaccine rollout plan in Timmins the last several weeks as I have parents who live there and I am anxiously waiting to book appointments for them.
I have to say that I’m pretty disappointed with the rollout plan in Timmins. In many other areas of the province the vaccine is available to people 70+ and Timmins just started rolling out their plan to 75+. Actually, as of March 31 the vaccines in my health unit will be open to people 65+. Why is Timmins so far behind?
Every day I log on to the Porcupine Health Unit site to see if they’ve expanded eligibility and I’ve noticed that several times there have been clinics that run where they did not sign up the maximum number of people allowed for the day. If there are still available spots, why is the health unit not opening up these clinics to other eligible individuals? There is a vaccine clinic scheduled for March 31 that was only open to people in phase 1 of the rollout plan and two hours before the signup period ended on March 30 there were still 130 spots available. This is not the first time that I’ve seen this. Why is this happening? If you see the clinic is not filling up, why would you not open it up to the 75+ group or even expand it to 70+ as the rest of the province has. That is hundreds of more people that could have received their shot over the last several weeks.
My father is 72 years old and is missing a portion of his lung and I’m very anxious for him to get vaccinated. If he lived almost anywhere else in the province he would either already be vaccinated or at least have an upcoming appointment. The Porcupine Health Unit needs to do a better job at managing their clinics as they are falling behind the rest of the province. People's lives are on the line!
Sincerely,
