The Northwestern Health Unit is working hard to make sure the most vulnerable get their COVID-19 vaccinations.
Medical Officer of Health Doctor Kit Young Hoon explains that includes the transient population.
“We are working to do targeted vaccination of the homeless/transient population,” says Young Hoon, “It’s happening in many communities…it just depends on the ability to reach that population. The effort is focusing on shelters and drop-in centres.”
She tells us that unlike normal vaccine clinics, it’s hard to get exact data on how the effort is going.
“It is a very fluid population so it is about trying to reach them where they are at…that makes it hard to pin down a number.”
Doctor Young Hoon adds that unlike mass vaccination clinics, which are due to start in earnest next week across the province, you shouldn’t expect to hear anything about them beforehand.
“At this point, we are not publicising clinics ahead of time due to security and privacy, especially in these kinds of clinics where the setting is a little more challenging to control.”
The effort comes following a surge of COVID-19 cases among the homeless population in Thunder Bay.
