Ontario's Minister of Health says second doses of the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine are headed to Windsor-Essex, despite a short supply of appointments and shots.
Speaking to Blackburn News Wednesday morning, Christine Elliott discussed the current phase of the AstraZeneca rollout, which consists of 31,000 doses for Windsor-Essex, Toronto, and Kingston for the sole purpose of second doses. At the moment, only people who received their first dose of the AZ vaccine between March 10 and March 19 are eligible to receive a second one.
Finding an appointment, though, has been a challenge in Windsor-Essex, as most pharmacies checked by Blackburn News did not have the doses in stock as of Wednesday morning, or there was a waitlist for an online appointment.
When asked about supply concerns, Elliott said that due to the time constraint of the AZ doses being rolled out, every effort is being made to get the shots to the pharmacies as soon as possible.
"We are receiving more doses of AstraZeneca," said Elliott. "So if people are worried that they're not going to get their second shot from this supply, they don't need to be worried because we have another 254,000 vaccines coming in very soon."
Elliott said with those vaccines, preparations are being made to get those doses out to people in the initial three public health regions, followed by others throughout the province. She praised the efforts of the regional health units to get as many Ontarians vaccinated against COVID-19 as possible.
"We're sitting right now at about 63 per cent of all adults over 18 having received their first dose, and we're going to continue," said Elliott. "For as many people who want to receive them, we're going to have one ready for them."
On Tuesday, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit reported that 66.7 per cent of Windsor-Essex residents 18 or older had received at least a first dose of a vaccine.
Elliott also assured Ontarians that the AZ vaccine is safe, despite reports of rare blood clots experienced by people who have had the first dose. Global News reported Tuesday that a man in his 40s became this week the first Ontarian to die from thrombus as a result of the vaccine. Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Barbara Yaffe said out of over a million people who got the AZ vaccine, just 13 cases of thrombus were reported.
