Niagara is expecting to see its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines arrive today or tomorrow.
Niagara Health System President and CEO Lynn Guerriero says vaccine supply is one of the biggest fears among health care workers right now, she says over the next three weeks over 11-thousand doses are expected.
Guerriero is confident all residents and health care staff in LTC's in the region will be vaccinated with those doses
The way it will roll out is, Niagara Health will begin vaccinating front-line healthcare workers in long-term care homes and hospitals at a clinic set up at the St. Catharines hospital.
At the same time, Public Health will deploy small teams to long-term care homes and high-risk retirement homes to vaccinate residents.
Guerriero says they decided to go ahead with first doses even though the supply chain of vaccine is not locked down.
She says second dose delivery is something they have to be mindful of going forward.
A number of Niagara long term care homes have suffered or are continuing to suffer with large COVID-19 outbreaks.
Any residents or staff who have tested positive for the virus, will not be vaccinated immediately.
Guerriero indicates that infectious disease experts have said anyone who has had the virus and recovered has a certain amount of immunity and that those individuals will be vaccinated in three months time.