THUNDER BAY — It took just a matter of hours for all the appointment times to be taken up for the first week of the Thunder Bay District Health Unit's COVID-19 vaccination clinic.
The clinic's first recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be people aged 85 and older.
It opens Wednesday at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition's Coliseum building at 425 Northern Avenue.
On Monday, after the TBDHU announced the opening date, all the clinic appointments available for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week were quickly booked for individuals born on or before January 1, 1936.
Upwards of 500 people are expected to receive the vaccine this week.
Walk-ins will not be seen.
As more clinic dates are announced, including next week, appointments will be accepted online on the TBDHU website, or alternatively by phone at (807) 625-5900.
The health unit advised residents to visit its website and watch its social media pages for information on when additional clinic spaces will open.
The provincial government's COVID-19 vaccine rollout plan includes adults 80 years of age and older as one of the priority groups.
Dr. Janet DeMille, the medical officer of health for the TBDHU, said there are an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 people in that age group in the district.
She said the health unit will offer vaccinations to those between 80 and 84 after those 85 and over are immunized.
In the coming weeks and months, DeMille said, the TBDHU will continue to use the Coliseum as the vaccination rollout advances to include other age groups.
She said the health unit hopes to refine its procedures and accelerate the process.
"We're starting off a bit slow right now. That's going to help us learn the ropes of mass immunization clinics. Going forward we want to considerably increase [the volume] along with our many partners who are already doing this," DeMille said.
She noted that the TBDHU has been working closely with the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre and supporting its vaccination clinic at Lakehead University, which opened last month for groups designated at highest priority for vaccinations.
"We've certainly learned a lot from them in terms of their logistics, and we're guided by our own experience and knowledge in delivering mass immunization clinics" such as at the time of the H1N1 pandemic in 2009-2010, DeMille said.
The health unit has also secured the CLE Heritage building, in the anticipation that it will become necessary for its own use or for the use of partners such as First Nations organizations.
DeMille said some vaccine has also been delivered to outlying district communities for administering to priority groups in the smaller centres.
