Hamilton reports over 100 new COVID-19 cases, more Ontario pharmacies set to offer mRNA vaccines

The head of the Ontario Pharmacists Association (OPA) says the agency is making a push for expansion of its Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna pilot programs due to the uncertainty of AstraZeneca shipments vaccines amid the coronavirus crisis in India, which saw shipments suspended amid surging cases and hospitalizations.

“That on top of the NACI (National Advisory Committee on Immunization) communications last week has created some challenges with respect to that vaccine,” OPA CEO Justin Bates told Global News.

“So we want to make sure that, particularly for the hardest-hit areas, we offer the emergency vaccines and eventually to all pharmacies across the province.”

Bates says the plan is to expand the current program, with the help of the provincial government, to get mRNA vaccines into all Ontario pharmacies in the next three weeks.

Two million doses of the Pfizer vaccine are expected to hit Canada this week — the only shipments scheduled.

More Moderna vaccines are coming next week, while the future of Oxford-AstraZeneca or Johnson and Johnson vaccines is questionable for the near future.

Sixteen pharmacies in Toronto and Peel Region are currently offering Pfizer, while Moderna vaccines as part of a pilot project in five other health regions, including Hamilton.

Outside of the GTA pilot project, the only vaccine pharmacies have been receiving is AstraZeneca.

As of Monday, close to 13 million Canadians have received a COVD-19 vaccine dose – representing roughly about 30 per cent of the population.

Ontario has given out 6.2 million shots as of May 10.

As of Monday, Hamilton pharmacies have distributed about 27,000 of the estimated 218,000 doses administered in the city.

In March, the province opted to hold second doses up to 16 weeks from the 21 to 28 days recommended by vaccine manufacturers.

The move was made in a bid to get as many first shots into arms as possible amid delayed shipments and a public health recommendation that protection could be maximized with a longer wait.

Bates says those who got their first dose at a pharmacy and didn’t receive notice of when they could get a second shot should be contacted by the same location in the near future.

The province revealed that it’s moving on a plan to administer follow up shots this week for some patients, such as those with transplants and undergoing chemotherapy. High-risk health-care workers and people with dementia, diabetes, sickle cell disease and others with similar afflictions are also on the list.

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Whether the second shot will be of the same brand of vaccine is still in question due to limited supply of AstraZeneca and an ongoing study by a federal vaccine advisory group on the effectiveness of mixing doses between the first and second shots.

“So this is something we’re going to have to normalize and have a long-term plan in terms of vaccine distribution,” said Bates.

“It is really important everybody gets the second dose for full immunity.”

Ontario’s health minister Christine Elliott said it’s likely recipients of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will receive a different shot for their second dose.

Quebec has also said that it plans to mix vaccines due to supply shortages.

Hamilton reported 101 new COVID-19 infections on Monday, and saw an outbreak at a downtown Hamilton apartment building grow to 103 cases as of Sunday.

The surge at Rebecca Towers grew by 12 more cases on the weekend and is the city’s largest single outbreak.

The city revealed two new workplace outbreaks on Sunday, including a second Tim Horton’s location in Stoney Creek with a pair of cases among employees.

Public health says there are now two locations of the iconic restaurant chain with outbreaks, with the other near King Street East and Greenhill Avenue.

The other new outbreak also involves four workers and is at a landscaping company, Green Collar.

The outbreak at the YWCA’s child-care centre downtown was closed after 14 days on Sunday. The facility had six cases in total involving four patrons and a pair of workers.

There are now 24 workplace outbreaks in the city involving over 160 total cases.

Hamilton has 44 outbreaks as of May 10 involving 403 people.

There are 144 patients with COVID-19 in Hamilton hospitals as of May 10. Hamilton Health Sciences says they have 103 with 39 in intensive care units (ICU) and St. Joe’s has 41 patients, with 34 of those in an ICU.

Public health reported a reproductive number of 1.12 on Friday, which indicates there is still spread of the virus in the community.

The seven-day moving average of cases was at 139 at the end of last week, while the positivity rate, last recorded on May 7, shows that 12.2 per cent of all tests are coming back positive in Hamilton.