After a slow start, Sarnia-Lambton's COVID-19 vaccine rollout is beginning to ramp-up.
Lambton Medical Officer of Health Dr. Sudit Ranade said they've now started distribution on two fronts.
"The first front is the highest risk healthcare workers are going to be immunized, many of them are affiliated with the hospital, as providers of acute care services they're in that category," Ranade told a media briefing Wednesday afternoon. "And we're also running some mobile vaccines where we are going to the retirement homes in our community to immunize them with Pfizer."
Dr. Ranade said long-term care, high-risk retirement home and Indigenous Elder Care residents were inoculated first because they were the first priority population identified by the province. He said they didn't have enough vaccine to go beyond that, but now they do.
The first shipment of Pfizer vaccine, 3,500 doses, arrived in Lambton Monday, an additional supply of Moderna vaccine, about 1,200 doses, is expected this week, and another Pfizer shipment of 3,500 doses is to arrive next week.
Dr. Ranade said it's too early to say when we might see the vaccines taking hold in the community.
"Right now there's lots of good evidence that the vaccines reduce severe disease and mortality in the people who are vaccinated, and we are waiting for more experience with the vaccine to be able to say that the vaccine reduces transmission. So I think you're going to see a slow process of moving towards a gradual reopening of things."
The medical officer of health said they're currently trying to get to the populations deemed eligible by the province, and they don't have enough vaccine supply yet to start booking appointments for the over-80 age group.
The Ontario government said Wednesday a province-wide registration system for vaccine distribution is to go live March 15.
Dr. Ranade said he thinks it'll be a few months before Lambton County will be able to offer on-demand inoculations to the community at large.
-With files from Colin Gowdy
