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Windsor Regional Hospital has been responsible for vaccinating long-term care and retirement home staff with the Pfizer vaccine at the St. Clair College SportsPlex. However, the health unit has also administered vaccines to long-term care home staff in-house.
Some homes have had the resources to administer the COVID-19 vaccines to their residents and staff without additional help from the health unit, Marentette said. Others have needed public health nurses to step in and do the job.
Windsor-Essex was one of the approximately 17 regions in Ontario chosen by the province to receive vaccines first because of high COVID-19 transmission rates.
On Jan. 5, the province announced it would ensure all residents, health-care workers, and essential caregivers at long-term care homes in the “priority regions” of Windsor-Essex, Toronto, Peel, and York received a vaccination by Jan. 21.
“There are so many people involved to make this happen at our site and also all the long-term care homes,” Marentette said.
While the completion of the long-term care home vaccine rollout is cause for celebration, medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed said those who have received the shot are not yet protected from COVID-19.
“We still have to follow all the measures that we have been talking about in public health,” he said. “We really hope that over some time period, all of these vaccines that have gone into the arms of the people (will show) its results and its impact — but we have to be patient.”
It takes about two weeks for the body to build up an immunity to COVID-19 after it receives the vaccine, Ahmed said. The vaccine is even more effective once people have received a second dose.
tcampbell@postmedia.com
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