Update on vaccinations in Sudbury & Manitoulin districts
Public Health Sudbury & Districts will soon announce when those who are 75 and over in 2021 can begin booking appointments locally for COVID-19 vaccines.
Agency medical officer of health, Dr. Penny Sutcliffe says last Friday, the Ontario Government announced that its online booking system would be available this week for individuals aged 75 and over. However, she emphasizes this did not signal the start of eligibility for this age group across the province. The agency anticipates clinics for this age group to begin next week and information about how to book appointments will be issued in the coming days.
She says the health unit has yet to transition to the provincial online COVID-19 vaccine booking system and will announce once this transition occurs.
Currently, pharmacies and primary care practices across Public Health’s service area are not offering the COVID-19 vaccine.
Dr. Sutcliffe adds details about vaccination opportunities in local pharmacies are expected to be shared as we move into Phase 2 of the vaccine rollout plan.
Currently across Greater Sudbury and the districts of Sudbury and Manitoulin, Public Health is continuing to offer COVID-19 vaccine to the province’s Phase One groups as follows:
Staff, residents, or essential caregivers of long-term care homes
The staff of retirement homes or congregate care settings for seniors
Residents of retirement homes or congregate care settings for seniors
Residents or staff of Eldercare homes
Health care workers (see Ministry of Health criteria, PDF)
Indigenous adults (First Nations, Métis, Inuit)
Adults 80 years of age and older in 2021 (individuals born in 1941 or earlier)
Recipients of chronic home care
For vaccine clinic dates, visit http://phsd.ca/COVID-19/vaccine-clinics.
What you can do now:
Adults born in 1941 or earlier, or adults who receive chronic home care services, who have not yet been vaccinated, can now call and book COVID-19 vaccination appointments without pre-registering. To book an appointment, please call 705.674.2299 (toll-free: 1.800.708.2505). The call centre is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.
All health care workers are encouraged to pre-register for their vaccination appointment with Public Health Sudbury & Districts if they have not already booked an appointment:
Health care workers classified as the highest priority, very high priority, and high priority are eligible for appointments this week. Moderate priority health care workers will be eligible next week but should pre-register this week.
The vaccination efforts are aligned with the Province’s phased vaccination approach as well as the Ministry of Health’s guidance on Health Care Worker Prioritization.
A look at the local numbers
Public Health Sudbury & Districts is reporting 23 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday.
Considering resolved cases, the agency now has 269 active cases.
Twenty-one cases are in Greater Sudbury and two in the wider Sudbury District.
All are under investigation.
Health Sciences North states it has 28 admitted patients, 19 confirmed as positive COVID-19 cases, the other nine waiting results.
Of those individuals, seven are in Intensive Care.
And Algoma Public Health is reporting two new cases of COVID-19, both from Sault Ste. Marie and area.
There are now 21 active cases with one individual hospitalized.
A look provincially
Premier Doug Ford says our province is making “tremendous progress” in its program to inoculate Ontarians against COVID-19 and he’s praising health care workers for stepping up to ensure that people are getting their shots as fast as possible.
But he’s again telling the federal government that the supply of vaccines needs to be stepped up.
Ontario’s chief medical officer of health says he’s concerned that the daily number of new cases, the positivity rate, and the proportion of cases involving the more-contagious variants of concern are all on the rise.
While the numbers aren’t rising as fast as some models had predicted, Doctor David Williams notes we haven’t seen the dip in the numbers he had hope for and that’s led to an increase in the number of people being treated in hospital.