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The size of a facility and the presence of a memory care unit — a place that provides specialized care for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia — also contribute to the assessment of risk level.
The health unit also takes into consideration if a facility previously had a COVID-19 outbreak and how challenging it was to contain it. To date, 30 of the 44 long-term care and retirement homes in Windsor-Essex have experienced outbreaks, some of them multiple times. Sixteen facilities had active outbreaks as of Wednesday.
High-risk facilities without active outbreaks will have their residents immunized first, Ahmed said. Next will be facilities with contained outbreaks — ones with very few cases and no ongoing transmission.
After both of those vaccination cycles are completed, the health unit would like to vaccinate residents at all homes in the region, but it will need to first receive additional doses from the province.
The health unit has created educational materials about the Moderna vaccine for homes to share with their residents, so individuals or their substitute decision makers can give informed consent. The vaccine is voluntary.
Marentette said she doesn’t anticipate residents will reject the vaccine, though they have the right to.
“We’ve all been through this pandemic. We’ve all been waiting and hoping for the vaccine,” she said. “It is here. With it, there’s relief, there’s excitement and there’s hope. I want people to get the answers to the questions they have.”
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