Hamilton’s COVID-19 vaccination clinics begin administering second doses

Hamilton’s COVID-19 vaccine program, slowed by a retooling of Pfizer’s European manufacturing facilities, is expected to start booking appointments for those needing a second dose from the city’s fixed clinic in about a week.

The city’s medical officer health says the Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) clinic, on pause since last week due to the limited vaccine supply in Ontario, will soon be reaching out to people who got their first shot at that location.

“Those recipients are going to be scheduled for their second dose within the 42-day timeline that the province has put forward and are working towards reopening on February the 10th,” Dr. Elizabeth Richardson said in an update on Monday.

The clinic is has been vaccinating staff from long-term care and high-risk retirement homes, as well as essential caregivers, and healthcare workers from high-risk areas since late December.

So far, just over 19,000 doses of the vaccines have been administered with over 14,000 at the fixed site and over 4,800 through mobile clinics.

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Richardson said the mobile clinic began second doses for residents of long-term care and retirement homes on Sunday with Idlewyld Manor on Sanatorium Road, the site of three different outbreaks during the pandemic in May, November, and late December.

The clinic hit St. Peter’s Residence at Chedoke and Hamilton Continuing Care on Wentworth Street on Monday.

Although the province extended the window for second shots to 42 days, Richardson said residents in long term care homes and high-risk retirement homes will be sticking with Pfizer’s recommended 21- to 27-day interval and Moderna’s 28-day wait time.

As of Monday, about one million doses have been administered in Canada — about less than 2 per cent of the population.

Pfizer-BioNTech announced that Canada would see fewer doses of vaccine in January due to a necessary upgrade at Pfizer’s European factory.

Last week, Canada received zero vaccines from Pfizer but is expecting about 150,000 doses of the vaccine in the first two weeks of February.