The COVID-19 vaccination campaign is officially underway in the nation’s capital as the first few doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine were administered to long-term care workers at the Ottawa Hospital’s civic campus on Tuesday morning, an occasion which prompted a visit from Canada’s prime minister.
Jo-Anne Miner, a personal support worker at St. Patrick’s Home, was the first to receive the vaccination locally short after 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning, according to the hospital.
Before receiving the injection Tuesday morning, Miner could be heard reassuring nurse Venus Lucero, who was giving her the shot.
“Don’t be nervous,” Miner said, drawing laughs from a handful of onlookers in the room for the history-making moment. “I’m OK so you should be OK.”
“That’s very reassuring,” Lucero responded.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Health Minister Patty Hajdu stopped by the hospital an hour after the first vaccinations took place to meet with hospital staff and reflect on the occasion.
“It’s emotional. It’s the beginning of the end,” Trudeau said.
“It’ll still be a long winter, but as we start to see the proportion of the population increase that has vaccines, we’re going to be able to start thinking about what measures we can loosen a bit.”
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson commented on Twitter that the vaccination was a “historic moment” but that residents can’t let their guard down when it comes to protecting against COVID-19.
The Ottawa Hospital confirmed Monday it has received 3,000 doses of the vaccine as part of Ontario’s first phase of inoculation against the novel coronavirus.
Up to 1,500 long-term care workers are expected to receive the first dose of the double-shot vaccine this week.
One hundred people were vaccinated in Ottawa on Tuesday, according to Joanne Read, the Ottawa Hospital’s executive vice-president and chief planning and development officer.
The hospital is on-track to vaccinate the full initial cohort of 1,500 people by Friday, Read said, with roughly 1,200 people currently signed up for a vaccine appointment.
She noted that some health-care workers at the hospital are feeling encouraged seeing each other sign up to receive the vaccine, and are then following suit in many cases.
Local medical officer of health Dr. Vera Etches said that while Ottawa Public Health isn’t having any issues filling appointment slots, the health unit has been fielding questions from many workers about the vaccine.
“People have questions and we need to answer their questions about this vaccine,” Etches said Tuesday. She stressed that the Pfizer vaccine is “safe and effective.”
Staff members at 10 long-term care homes in Ottawa are currently eligible to receive the vaccine. Etches said the homes were chosen based on which ones would benefit the most from the vaccine based on their history during the pandemic and other factors that could put them at risk for future outbreaks.
Any home currently facing a COVID-19 outbreak was not chosen for the early phase of vaccinations, Etches said, to avoid confusion between any overlapping side effects of the vaccine and symptoms of COVID-19, such as fatigue or fever.
The hospital, equipped with cold storage facilities needed to preserve the vaccine, will act as a local hub in the early stages of the vaccination campaign in the province.
Retired Gen. Rick Hillier, who leads Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccine task force, said Tuesday that approximately a dozen more sites across the province will be set up to administer the vaccine before year’s end.
The first vaccination in Ottawa follows initial injections in Toronto and Montreal on Monday.