Is Niagara behind other communities when it comes to administering COVID vaccines?
According to Ontario's Health Minister and the region's top doctor - no.
St. Catharines NDP MPP Jennie Stevens asked Premier Doug Ford today why Niagara was excluded from vaccine pilots for pharmacies and family physicians, despite having one of the oldest populations in the province.
“Yesterday, Niagara was not included in either the family physician or the pharmacy pilot for vaccinations. Niagara has one of the highest percentages of variance COVID-19 cases in the province. To be excluded, yet again, is a disgrace,” said Stevens. “Will the premier immediately include Niagara in these pilot projects and treat Niagara fairly in its vaccination roll out?,” Stevens asked.
Health Minister Christine Elliott responded by saying Niagara has always been treated fairly and will continue to be treated fairly, with respect to all things related to COVID, saying allocations to Niagara have been monitored carefully.
" Niagara did and continues to receive vaccines above its population base share of vaccines. So they are absolutely being treated fairly."
Elliott says Niagara is considered to be a hot spot and will be receiving additional allocations of vaccines.
When asked why Niagara was left out of the pharmacy and family dr. office rollouts, Minister Elliott says "the reality is that we did not receive significant volumes of vaccines from the federal government until recently. They are only starting to come in in quantities. We are going to be using the Astrazeneca vaccines for pharmacies because they're easily transportable and can easily be used. We are working with pharmacies, we are working with the OMA to bring this forward. This is going to be done as soon as we receive additional doses. We've only received 194,500 doses of astrazeneca so far, which are going to be used in the three areas in Windsor, in Toronto and Kingston Frontenac, because they are time limited. They expire at the end of this month. We will be receiving more doses and as we receive them, they will be expanded to pharmacies across the province, and I can advise you that the area of Niagara is considered to be a hot spot and will be receiving additional allocations of vaccines."
Niagara's Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr. Mustafa Hirji backs up Elliott's comments that Niagara is not far behind other communities.
In a call with media members on Monday, Dr. Hirji shared a graph (above Niagara is listed in green) showing the region was on track with other areas.
However, he says the large amount of seniors in LTC homes, and retirement homes in the area makes it appear that the region is lagging behind.
On Monday, Niagara residents 80+ will be able to call the Ontario vaccine portal to make an appointment for a vaccine. The phone number has not yet been released.
Just this afternoon, Niagara Health announced that some residnets 80+ will be getting a call to book their appt. Click here for details.
So far over 34,000 doses have been administered in the region.