Health unit to start vaccinating seniors 80 and up on Monday

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The wait is over.

Seniors age 80 and older in Windsor-Essex who live outside long-term care and retirement homes will start to receive the COVID-19 vaccine this Monday.

The local health unit announced on Thursday it would begin to use the WFCU Centre in Windsor as a vaccination site for the elderly next week. On March 8, Nature Fresh Farms Recreation Centre in Leamington will open as a second vaccination site for seniors.

“We are excited to roll out what we have and give it to the most vulnerable,” said health unit CEO Theresa Marentette, who acknowledged the supply of vaccines in Windsor-Essex remains limited.

The pre-registration form is available online and can be accessed through the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit website, wechu.org, by selecting “Go to Pre-Registration” on the home page. Family and friends of adults 80 years of age and older are encouraged to support their loved ones in completing the online form.

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Those unable to access the website can contact the health unit’s vaccine registration hotline at 519-251-4072. Due to anticipated high call volumes, it may take multiple attempts to speak with a health unit representative.

To pre-register for the vaccine, residents must provide their first and last name, date of birth, address, health card number, and phone number. Only people living in Windsor and Essex County will be eligible for inoculation.

The health unit is cautioning residents that this is not a first-come, first-served system. People who have pre-registered for immunization will be randomly selected and contacted to book their appointments to ensure “fair and equitable access to appointment times,” the health unit said. Any seniors unable to travel to either vaccination site will have future opportunities to sign up for immunization once more accessible options become available.

To start, public health unit nurses will administer the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to between 150 and 200 seniors with appointments between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. five days a week. That number will grow once the Leamington vaccine site opens, though the region does not have enough doses on hand to vaccinate all of the roughly 20,000 residents age 80 and over who have not yet received the jab.

The region’s medical officer of health on Thursday said the health unit is starting with a smaller number of vaccines per day to make the experience a “very good” one for seniors, “rather than rushing them” through the pre-vaccine assessment and any questions they may have.

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“As the process improves and we feel maybe we can do more, and if we get the indication that we have more vaccines than what we need, that can ramp up to as much as possible,” said Dr. Wajid Ahmed. “Having two sites, one in the county and one in the city, will allow us to distribute a significant number of vaccines per day if we need to ramp up.”

The only limiting factor is the supply of the vaccine, he said.

“If the province wants to give us more vaccine tomorrow, our system is ready to handle that.”

Almost two-thirds of the 378 local COVID-19 deaths so far were people age 80 and older, he said, including a woman in her 80s who lived in the general community and whose death was reported on Thursday.

Phase One of Ontario’s inoculation plan initially included seniors in long-term care homes, but not those living in the general community. Those seniors were told they’d have to wait until essential workers were vaccinated to roll up their sleeves in Phase Two a few months from now.

The province changed course last week and added those aged 80 and above to Phase One, along with health-care workers identified as “very high” priority, like dentists, midwives, respiratory therapists, and dozens of other professionals.

The local health unit is one of the first in the province to create its own COVID-19 vaccine booking system. Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health launched its online pre-registration form on Tuesday, as did Six Nations of the Grand River. Waterloo Region launched its own vaccine portal on Wednesday.

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Retired general Rick Hillier, chair of Ontario’s COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Task Force, said on Wednesday that the province’s booking system wouldn’t be live until March 15, and those age 80 and older would start to receive the jab in most of the province starting the third week of March.

Since Windsor-Essex was part of a pilot project to get needles in arms at long-term care and retirement homes in Ontario’s hot spots, the region is ahead of the curve when it comes to completing vaccination among priority groups, Ahmed said.

On Tuesday, the Windsor-Essex health unit launched a vaccine pre-registration web page for workplaces that employ health-care workers the province deems “very high risk” for contracting COVID-19. Vaccination of those roughly 6,000 area residents is also expected to start next week at the St. Clair College SportsPlex where Windsor Regional Hospital continues to administer the shot.

Nearly all residents in the highest priority group in Windsor-Essex — long-term care home staff, residents, and essential caregivers, and hospital and acute care staff who work with COVID-19 patients or have a high risk of exposure — have already been vaccinated.

To date, 11,511 residents of Windsor and Essex County have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and 2,306 have received their first dose only.

The health unit continues to accept volunteer applications from medical professionals willing to assist with future mass vaccination clinics. However, Ahmed on Thursday said cross-border health-care workers are not being considered for a volunteer position, even if they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, because “they are to maintain their work-home self-isolation as best as possible.”

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The health unit reported 34 additional cases of COVID-19 on Thursday. Five were outbreak-related, 12 were close contacts of confirmed cases, 11 were attributed to community spread and six were still under investigation.

There are 260 active cases in Windsor-Essex, including 47 people in hospital who have tested positive. Four of them are in intensive care.

The death of a man in his 50s who lived in the general community was also reported on Thursday.

Twelve locations across the region have active outbreaks, including four long-term care and retirement homes, four workplaces, two hospital settings and two community locations.

tcampbell@postmedia.com

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