Vaccine roll-out planning advances in Waterloo Region with more detailed provincial direction

Waterloo Region – More than 26,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been given in Waterloo Region since December 22, 2020. This includes more than 12,000 people who are now fully vaccinated with two doses.

Last week, the Province released new details about priority groups eligible for vaccination in Phase One and more specific prioritization of health care workers.

In Waterloo Region, vaccinations will focus on the following groups over the next three weeks (subject to available vaccine supply):

• Continuing first-dose vaccination of all remaining eligible long-term care, high risk retirement home staff and essential caregivers.
• “Highest priority” frontline health care workers in these settings (Including cleaning, reception and other staff):

• • All patient-facing health care workers involved in COVID-19 response;
  • Assessment and testing centres / mobile testing teams / lab services;
  • Teams supporting outbreak response; and
  • Vaccine clinics and isolation centres.

• Medical first responders: paramedics and firefighters
• Community health care workers serving specialized populations:

• • Needle exchange, supervised consumption and treatment services; and
  • Home and community care workers caring for seniors and chronic home care recipients in group settings or providing hands on care to COVID-19 patients.

The province also announced that adults 80 and older are now eligible for vaccine in Phase One. However, due to limited vaccine supply, vaccination of this priority group is not expected to begin until early March 2021. The Task Force will work closely with local health care partners, including primary care physicians, to identify patients 80 and over.

The province is working on a central booking system that is not yet available for use. When a booking system is in place, including a local pre-registration system, the Task Force will communicate broadly to ensure local residents are aware and can be registered.

“We are cautiously optimistic that gradual increases in vaccine supply will allow us to expand to additional priority groups,” said Shirley Hilton, Deputy Chief for Waterloo Region Police Service and head of the Waterloo Region Vaccine Distribution Task Force. “Moving forward we will identify our focus for vaccination based on the information available at the time of release. We know this information can change quickly due to many factors however are committed to keeping residents informed. ”

Visit our website to learn more about where you can go to be vaccinated once appointments are available as well as our 5 Clinic Type strategy.

We urge the public to continue following public health guidelines protect yourself, others and slow the spread of COVID-19 in our community.

General Inquiries: publichealth@regionofwaterloo.ca or 519-575-4400