As the COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Chatham reopens after a temporary pause, health officials are working to clarify how a provincial change will affect the time period between doses administered in Chatham-Kent.
Public Health Spokesperson Jeff Moco said the health unit is currently working on how provincial changes to the vaccine rollout announced last week will affect Chatham-Kent.
The province is following the recommendation by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization to extend the period between first and second doses to 16 weeks. Due to the change, Windsor Regional Hospital announced their schedule changes on Monday.
"Ontario stated that there will be some exemptions and we are just working through those details on what that means for our CK residents," said Moco in an emailed statement. "We hope to announce more details in the near future as the directions become clearer."
Chatham-Kent's Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Colby had previously said he agrees with the recommendation to extend the time period between doses.
“There is increasing scientific evidence that more than 90 per cent of the protection of a vaccine is afforded by that first dose," said Colby. "The main purpose of a second dose is to provide length of protection rather than strength of protection."
Dr. Colby said the clinic located at the John D Bradley Convention Centre opened on Tuesday, March 9, 2021 for scheduled appointments, adding that the vaccination process so far is moving along "quite rapidly." The clinic had to close its doors on Friday after it ran out of vaccine doses.
"We should be moving on to Phase Two before too long, hopefully by next week," said Colby. "We're really excited about that."
An updated list of who is currently eligible to book an appointment to receive a vaccine has been posted to the health unit's website. As the availability to receive the vaccine opens to more people, the Public Health Unit is also asking employers to be understanding and allow time for employees to attend booked appointments.
"We're starting to hear people say 'gee, I'd really like to come in but I can't really get the time off," said Colby. "It's really important for all of society that we get everybody vaccinated as soon as possible in a very orderly way. Our view is, if you let people off [work] for an hour to vote, let them off for an hour to get their vaccination."
Colby said the clinic is running in an efficient manner so people who book an appointment should not expect the waiting period to last for hours before they receive their shot.
The Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit reported nine new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, which bumped up the number of active cases to 34.
Two outbreaks at the Chatham hospital were declared on Monday but Colby previously said they are manageable.
At this point, Colby said variant strains of the virus are not a major concern locally.
"We really haven't seen a lot of that around here," he said. "Around Ontario, we see that the B117 variant -- the one that arose in Great Britain -- it's increasing in numbers but it appears to be very vaccine susceptible. I think the predictions that this was going to sweep through were a little bit on the grim side."
