The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive in the Simcoe-Muskoka region as early as next week.
However, our medical officer of health, Dr. Charles Gardner, says it could be late spring before healthcare workers and vulnerable people in the region are fully inoculated, before the general public has access to the shot, at least for anyone who wants it. You can watch his full video briefing below.
Gardner said yesterday, “The big picture would be that we would be busy doing this, providing vaccinations for most of next year, so we would be targeting ultimately getting coverage of 70 percent of the population in order to break the chain of transmission and have this brought under control and lead more normal lives.”
He said, “The earliest focus will be on those who are most vulnerable before we can then start to broaden out how we can get the vaccine to an ever larger number of people and eventually make it available to all who would want it in the public.”
He says health unit staff will work to distribute the vaccine collaboratively with RVH in Barrie, which is the only facility with the ultra-cold freezers capable of storing Pfizer’s COVID19 vaccine.
Gardner added that getting the vaccine made and approved in less than a year is an “incredible achievement.”
He also issued a special statement to residents and to read it, please click here.
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