As of Thursday, March 11, 2021, 13,514 vaccinations against COVID-19 had been administered to residents of the jurisdiction of the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU), which includes the United Counties of Prescott and Russell, the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry, and the City of Cornwall.

Number of vaccines given last week ·  2,417 vaccines administered at EOHU clinics
Who received vaccines last week · Long term care (LTC) staff and essential caregivers (ECG), first dose

· Retirement home (RH) staff and ECGs, first dose

· Health Care Workers (HCW) from highest and very high priority level, first dose

· Emergency first responders responding to medical calls, first dose

· Chronic home care recipients who are 80 years of age and older, born in 1941 or before (80+), first dose

· LTC residents, first dose

· RH residents, second dose

 
What is happening this week · The EOHU continues to work in collaboration with community and municipal partners to hold fixed site clinics across the 5 counties and the City of Cornwall to vaccinate:

·  staff & ECGs of RHs and LTC homes

·  highest and very high priority level HCWs

·  emergency first responders

·  physicians and their staff

· The EOHU is working with Indigenous partners to roll out vaccines.

· Hospital partners continue to vaccinate their staff and alternative level of care patients.

· The EOHU continues to work with partners to build capacity to book and administer vaccinations as supply increases in the coming weeks.

 
Who is planned to be vaccinated next · RH residents, second dose

· HCWs from highest, very high priority level, first dose

· Chronic home care recipients who are 80+ first dose

· Adults who are 80+, first dose

· We continue to reach out to HCWs in all priority levels as we plan to begin vaccinating HCWs from the high priority level as soon as possible.

 
Other information The EOHU is preparing for the opening of an online booking system as well as an online pre-registration tool. Pre-registration will facilitate booking appointments quickly and easily as vaccine supply increases.

To increase the number of individuals benefiting from a first dose of vaccine in the context of a limited COVID-19 vaccine supply, the province is following recommendations from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) to extend the time interval of the second dose of COVID-19 vaccines up to 16 weeks. This applies to the three two-dose vaccines currently approved by Health Canada (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca/COVISHIELD).

Vaccine supply continues to impact both the local and provincial vaccine roll out.  As a result, we continue to adjust our local plans to align with Ministry-identified target populations.

 

Please be assured that the EOHU is undertaking every effort to distribute the vaccines as soon as they are received in order to protect as many of our residents as possible, as quickly as possible. It remains extremely important to continue following public health precautions – even if you have received the vaccine – until a large majority of residents in our region have been vaccinated.