Waterloo Region has announced that the closure of the vaccination clinic at Grand River Hospital will be extended until Jan. 24.
The clinic was closed on Friday as staff were diverted to assisting the mobile clinic in vaccinating residents of long-term-care and retirement homes throughout Waterloo Region over the weekend.
The region says vaccinations being done in Waterloo Region are based upon the availability of the Pfizer vaccine. The company’s recent announcement of a decrease in the Canadian allocation has created a need to rework the plan for the clinic.
The clinic will reopen on Sunday when it will begin to administer second doses of the vaccine.
Waterloo Regional Police deputy chief Shirley Hilton says the temporary closure of the clinic does not mean vaccinations are on pause.
“We will continue to focus on administering doses to those in long-term care homes and high-risk retirement homes through our mobile clinic team,” she explained in a release.
“Once our allocation is increased, we will be ready to fully resume our vaccination plan.”
The region says that there will be a temporary slow-down of vaccinations in January which will last into early February due to a reduction in supply, which means there will be no further hospital staff or physicians getting first doses until vaccine supply increases.
On Friday, the federal government announced that Pfizer was cutting its shipment of the vaccine to Canada in half for four weeks as it retools a portion of one of its plants in an attempt to increase thenproduction of the vaccine.
“This expansion work means that Pfizer is temporarily reducing deliveries to all countries receiving vaccine manufactured at its European facility — and that includes Canada,” Procurement Minister Anita Anand said Friday.
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