Medical Officer of Health Dr. Chris Mackie says if other health units are offering COVID-19 vaccinations to groups that are not yet eligible in Middlesex-London, he sees no issue with people travelling to other regions in Ontario to get vaccinated.
A pilot offering Oxford-AstraZeneca shots started this month in Toronto, Kingston and Windsor pharmacies and it’s expected to expand to 700 sites over the next few weeks.
Initially, those vaccines were being made available to those age 60-64 but that has expanded to those 60 and older after Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) issued updated guidance saying the vaccine can be used on all adults and not just those 64 and younger.
It’s not yet clear when that program will expand to London.
“(The topic) has come up a fair bit, of people shopping around different communities depending on where they might be able to get an appointment. I’m not concerned,” he said Monday.
“As long as people are getting vaccinated, I’m happy.”
Mackie says the MLHU has seen “lots of people” from southwestern Ontario and even from the Greater Toronto Area who’ve travelled to the London region to get vaccinated “at various points” and he sees no issue with the practice as long as people are following public health guidelines like maintaining physical distance and wearing masks.
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“If people have time and energy and they want to drive somewhere to get their vaccine, where they may be eligible or may be able to find an appointment, we encourage them to do that,” he added.
“I don’t see any problem with that. Go where you can get a vaccine.”
The AstraZeneca vaccine, like the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, requires two doses but Mackie believes that those who travel to other jurisdictions in the province to get their shot can likely get their second dose in Middlesex-London.
“The provincial tracking system means that we will know where people have gotten their shots before. And so the automatic second appointments which are generated when people get their first shot will likely be at that same clinic… but we should be able to change those,” he said.
“It will take a phone call and the phone lines obviously, you know, often take some time to get through, but we should be able to handle that.”
On Monday, Ontario’s solicitor general said pharmacies in virus hot spots would be next to offer vaccinations to people 60 and older, saying the expansion depends on supply and the exact sites are being determined with the Ontario Pharmacists Association.
The MLHU is currently in the orange level of the province’s COVID-19 response framework.
Mackie says he’s not sure when local pharmacies will get the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“We’re not getting direct information. That information is flowing from the provincial government to the pharmacies,” Mackie said.
“Local public health is aware that there is a pilot in some of the health units in Ontario. Beyond that, we don’t know what the next steps will be, which pharmacies, or anything really, about that process.”
More information on who is currently eligible for the vaccine in Middlesex-London can be found on the health unit’s website.
— with files from Global News’ Matthew Trevithick, Hannah Jackson and Rachael D’Amore.
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