The COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Barrie, Ont., is currently the fourth busiest in the province, behind sites in Ottawa and Toronto, the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre’s (RVH) president and CEO told Global News Wednesday.
So far, there have been 3,722 vaccine doses administered in the Simcoe Muskoka region, mainly to health-care workers in local hospitals, long-term care and retirement homes.
“From the broad regional perspective, the highest priority has been put (on) our residents in long-term care and other congregate settings like retirement homes,” RVH president and CEO Janice Skot said.
“Because the Pfizer vaccine has not been transportable, we focused on long-term care home employees and retirement home employees.”
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine must be stored at -70 C. Until the vaccine can be transported, people must travel to Barrie’s vaccination site in order to receive their dose.
Every day, Skot said staff take the right amount of vaccine doses to thaw in the fridge before they’re administered at the dual COVID-19 vaccination and testing centre on Sperling Drive.
“By Sunday of this week, over 8,000 vaccinations will have been delivered to the region — first and foremost, the workers in long-term care and retirement homes, and also hospital workers and credentialed staff,” Skot added.
“When we receive both direction and clear instruction from the Ministry of Health, we would be able to pivot and transport the Pfizer vaccine to those who need it most.”
The region started receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech novel coronavirus vaccine in late December and began inoculating people on Dec. 22.
At the time, Skot said the region received nearly 6,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. A second shipment came in from Pfizer this week and the same amount is scheduled to arrive in the region in the next two weeks.
“The vaccine is arriving, it is being distributed fairly,” Skot said.
“This is not the time to let up on the public health measures that we all have to focus on. It’s critically important, actually, during the time of a vaccine implementation that people continue to focus on wearing a mask, washing hands frequently, keeping the size of your bubble low and doing all of the things that the province has been insisting upon.”