It is frustrating living in Northwestern Ontario with the COVID virus crawling through our communities. We look south and see how quickly residents in northern Minnesota are being vaccinated. We watch with bated breath as our seniors at Rainycrest receive their second vaccination. With a second outbreak in Rainycrest staff having just ended, we question why every front-line workers has not been vaccinated. We wonder why there are any hospital workers in Fort Frances, Emo and Rainy River who continue to wait for vaccination.
And we hear that the vaccines have been slow to arrive in the northwest. Almost daily the recommendation on vaccine use changes.
Looking back over multiple announcements from the province and federal government, one can discover that all the optimistic announcements of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine deliveries has seen Canada shorted regularly. We now have a third vaccine from AstraZeneca available that will begin arriving in Canada in the next month. A fourth vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson has been approved for use in the United States.
Yet Ontario lags other provinces in successfully vaccinating its citizens. We only must look east or west and see how both Quebec and Alberta are already vaccinating the general population. In Ontario, the 34 Health Units are still struggling to vaccinate front line care givers in nursing homes, hospitals, and primary care facilities. And each of the 34 health units will have their own unique plan for the rollout of vaccines in their area.
Ontario has set a target date of March 15 for residents 80 and older to register online to receive the vaccine. The system is currently being soft launched in seven areas in Ontario with citizens 85 and older being invited to make appointments to receive the vaccine. Those 85-year-old citizens will begin receiving their vaccinations in early April. Hopefully, the soft launch will be successful and the rest of Ontario residents 80 and older will be able to make appointments.
But here in the Northwest, plans for vaccination remain unknown. We wait for directions from the Northwestern Health Unit. Will there be mass vaccination sites? Will vaccinations be available at the three hospitals in the district? Will pharmacists be enrolled in the three communities to deliver shots as they now do for the flue vaccine? Will our residents who are 80 and older and Indigenous adults be able to arrange for appointments on the date the province has set for registration?
Dates have been set for seniors 75 and older to register beginning April 15, Seniors 70 and older to register May 1, while those 65 and older can begin registering June 1 and those 60 and older may register beginning July 1. Those are provincial planned dates. We can only hope that the vaccine supplies will be available. Those 60 and younger will have to wait for more information on when they might be vaccinated.
Everything depends on delivery and distribution of vaccines. Hopefully all the plans will work. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Jim Cumming
Former Publisher
Fort Frances Times
