Ottawa Public Health will start pre-registering thousands of health-care workers on Wednesday in hopes of a more seamless rollout of COVID-19 vaccines when each sector comes up in the queue.
The local public health unit said Monday that COVID-19 vaccine supplies in Ottawa will allow health-care workers deemed “very high priority” under the province’s coronavirus vaccine sequencing plans to start getting their jabs in the next few days.
To make sure OPH’s vaccination system is ready to accommodate the “tens of thousands” of workers in Ottawa that fall into this high-priority category, the health unit will sign up workers via an online portal set to launch on Wednesday.
Workers in the following settings and roles can pre-register through the portal:
- Birth centres
- Community-based specialists
- Death investigation professionals
- Dentistry
- Gynecology/obstetrics, midwifery
- Nurse practitioner led clinics/contract nursing agencies
- Otolaryngology (ear, nose, throat)
- Pharmacies
- Primary care
- Respirology (respiratory therapy)
- Walk-in clinics
When the province clears these workers vaccination, OPH will send out emails to inform registrants about upcoming appointment slots.
OPH says that when a particular sector is next in the sequence, all front-line and patient-facing workers working in those settings are eligible for vaccination, including custodial, security and reception staff.
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Non-health workplaces will not have the same universal approval, OPH says. Only workers providing a health service or direct patient care are up for registration in this phase.
Non-regulated professionals working with patients at community-based health centres can also pre-register via the portal and might be asked to bring employee ID or other piece of identification to confirm their status as a high-priority health worker.
OPH said it will also be reaching out to professional associations to expedite finding other health workers who might be eligible for vaccination in the coming days.
Dr. Vera Etches, local medical officer of health, will host a virtual town hall with representatives from The Ottawa Hospital on Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. to answer questions from health care workers about getting in line for the vaccination queue.
The event will be streamed on the health unit’s Facebook and YouTube pages and questions can be sent in advance to COVID19Vaccines@ottawa.ca.
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