The Middlesex-London Health Unit believes it will be able to meet the “aggressive” provincial targets to expand COVID-19 vaccine access to all adults by the end of next month, starting with expanding access to those aged 55 and older on Friday.
The province announced Thursday afternoon that vaccine bookings would expand to those 55 and older on Friday and that it expects to expand it further to those 30 and older starting the week of May 17 and all adults 18 and older starting the week of May 24.
MLHU medical officer of health Dr. Chris Mackie says the local health unit will also be expanding vaccine bookings to those 55 and older starting 8 a.m. Friday and he’s they’ll meet the rest of the timeline the province has put forward.
“The provincial timetable is aggressive. We believe will be able to more or less keep pace here in Middlesex and London within a couple of days,” Mackie said Thursday.
“We hope to be able to open very soon as well to 50-plus and … to that first group of employees who can’t work from home at some point next week. We don’t have a date on that, but we will do our best to make that happen next week as well.”
The announcement comes the same day that vaccine eligibility expanded to eligible child-care workers.
For those who are eligible, Mackie says appointments are usually available one to three weeks out.
“It really depends on how many people we’re opening to and how many spots have become open in the system. As we look forward to tomorrow morning opening to the 55 to 60 age group, we have about 19,000 appointments across the whole system right now over the next four weeks that are available,” he said.
“That means we should be able to book that group fairly quickly and then open up to the 50-55 age group, hopefully early next week.”
Starting the week of May 10, however, the MLHU expects to expand eligibility to those age 45-50 and potentially even those 40-45 as well as a second group of people who can’t work from home and those with at-risk health conditions.
“We may have to schedule people out into a fifth week at that point.”
Appointments can be booked online or over the phone at 226-289-3560 from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. daily.
Specific information on eligibility criteria can be found on the MLHU’s website.
Middlesex-London to see increased supply after provincial hot spot blitz
The accelerated access is thanks to a surge in vaccine shipments to Ontario starting next week, though the impact won’t be felt locally until mid-May.
Ontario is scheduled to receive nearly 790,000 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine each of the weeks of May 3, 10, 17 and 24.
After that, the province is scheduled to receive nearly 940,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine each week for five weeks.
Meanwhile, nearly 390,000 Moderna doses are expected during the week of May 10.
Officials said further allocation is pending for the AstraZeneca vaccine and it’s not yet clear how many of the 300,000 doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine that the federal government is expecting in May will be allocated to Ontario.
The first two weeks of the bump in supply will see the province allocate additional vaccine doses to COVID-19 hot-spot communities.
As a result, the MLHU won’t feel the impacts of the increase in vaccine supply until the week of May 17.
London Mayor Ed Holder previously described plans to allocate half the province’s supply to hot-spot regions as “a bridge too far,” but he appeared to have softened on the idea on Thursday.
“The fact our existing supplies will be maintained during this two-week blitz of hot spots is welcome news and I believe a reasonable compromise,” he said.
“The fact is, we only need to look at the number of people from out of town currently being cared for in our local ICU to realize that hot spots, wherever they are, have an impact on us here in London,” he added.
Middlesex County Warden Cathy Burghardt-Jesson added that “initially there was a lot of concern” but that the fight against COVID-19 is a team effort.
“I know that we both lobbied our local provincial elected officials just to say ‘keep the vaccine train running into our area.’ That being said, I think we’ve all said from the beginning that this really is a partnership in this fight,” she explained.
“If we have neighboring communities that are hot spots that are struggling, we have to be able to support them where we can.”
Last Friday, LHSC’s chief medical officer Dr. Adam Dukelow told Global News that the hospital network was receiving anywhere from two to eight patients per day from outside of its jurisdiction, though not every one is an intensive care patient.
About a third of adults in the region have already had one dose
Mackie says the MLHU believes 30 to 35 per cent of adults in the region have been vaccinated.
He expects to meet the provincial target of 40 per cent of adults vaccinated with at least one dose by May 1.
“The vaccine story is the major positive right now. Over the past week, the three mass immunization clinics in London and Middlesex vaccinated 23,240 people. That’s an average of over 3,000 per day. We’ll see a little bit of a dip next week, but really accelerating in the weeks after that.”
By the end of the day Thursday, mass vaccination clinics in the region will have administered more than 160,000 doses.
By the end of this week, another 5,700 AstraZeneca doses will have been administered by select family doctors.
The health unit knows that another 21,000 AstraZeneca doses have been allocated to pharmacies, but it’s unclear how many have been administered, Mackie says.
“The one sort of caveat there is that some of those doses that we’ve been administering are going to second doses for the very small group that is eligible for that. And we also are vaccinating some people from outside of the region,” Mackie says.
“That affects some of that actual percentage. But it’s in the range of 30 to 35 per cent now.”
With increased supply expected mid-May, as well as the group of people who’ve already received a vaccination through pharmacies, Mackie expects the MLHU to open up vaccine eligibility to progressively younger age groups at a quicker pace.
The ramp up will also see the MLHU open another mass vaccination clinic at the Earl Nichols Recreation Centre near Southdale Road East and Wharncliffe Road South.
“We are planning to open Nichols’ in the month of May. Stay tuned, we’ll announce a date as soon as we have that finalized.”
The increased supply may also see the window between first and second doses shortened for those who’ve been vaccinated recently.
“The people that have been latest in receiving their first doses are likely to see their second doses sooner, mainly because the supply will be available then, but those that have been already delayed out of four months will not see their second doses change in timing.”
Mackie expects first doses to be completed by late June or early July.
–With files from Global News’ Daina Goldfinger and Matthew Trevithick.