The Northwestern Health Unit and their local partners are making progress on vaccinating area residents against COVID-19.
“I am proud of our residents, staff, and volunteers for making our clinics successful thus far. We are still in the early stages of our vaccine roll-out, but we are doing everything we can to get as many people vaccinated as efficiently as possible,” said Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kit Young Hoon. “We received vaccine much later than some areas in the province, but I am pleased to see that we’ve caught up to the province in terms of percentage of shots given.”
To ensure efficiency and to provide vaccine to as many people as possible, the health unit says they will be offering COVID-19 vaccination clinics in some of the region’s smaller communities to those 18 years of age and older.
These NWHU clinics are planned to run over the next several weeks in select communities that were chosen based on location, population, and the number of health unit resources required to offer ongoing clinics.
Information on booking an appointment for these clinics has been sent directly to residents and staff who work in the eligible municipalities and townships.
The health unit explains, all names of people booked into these clinics will be reviewed by local staff to confirm that they are residents or employees of the community.
For more information on these clinics, you may call 1-866-468-2240.
“A COVID-19 vaccine clinic requires many staff and resources to operate. By offering a one or two day clinic open to all adults in these small communities, we are able to free up future resources to enhance our vaccination efforts in our larger communities,” explains Dr. Young Hoon. “Clinics in our larger communities will only be slightly impacted by this process and within a few weeks, we hope that the number of shots given at those clinics will be able to increase by up to 50% in the large communities, pending vaccine allotment.”
To date, nearly 20,000 shots have been given in our region, which means 32% of people aged 18+ in our region have been given at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, on par with Ontario’s rates.
For more information on booking a vaccine appointment for residents of other communities in the NWHU region, please visit the health unit’s website.
