THUNDER BAY - As more COVID-19 vaccines arrive in the district, a new vaccination centre expects to significantly increase the number of daily immunizations by next week.
The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre opened its vaccination centre in the Bora Laskin Building on the Lakehead University campus on Thursday.
“We are expecting to complete just over 200 doses today at the building,” said Rhonda Crocker Ellacott, president and CEO of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. “We are working at continuing to do long-term care staff and essential care partners and some hospital staff as well.”
Previously, vaccinations were administered in a designated area of the TBRHSC, but Crocker Ellacott said the move to an off-site location will allow for many more daily immunizations.
“One of the reasons we moved our vaccination centre is we are able to do 168 vaccinations per day at our previous site,” she said. “By Monday we expect to do 500 to 600 vaccines per day. Right now the limiting factor is the number of vaccines available.”
The hospital received a new shipment of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday and while it does not disclose how many vaccines it has, Crocker Ellacott said they are expecting to give more than 3,000 doses this week.
Crocker Ellacott added that by the end of the week on Sunday, 3,700 first doses will have been administered and 1,900 second doses.
“We do expect more vaccines coming on a weekly basis,” she said. “We are really looking forward to being able to vaccinate a high number of individuals on a daily basis.”
Those considered top priority for the vaccine includes front-line health care workers and hospital staff working in high-risk areas, such as the emergency department and the COVID-19 unit.
To date, 250 hospital staff have been immunized but Crocker Ellacott said between the TBRHSC and St. Joseph’s Care Group, there are more than 1,000 hospital staff members identified as working in the higher risk category.
Hospital staff are working with employers and the Thunder Bay District Health Unit to identify and validate health care workers most at risk and appointments are booked ahead of time.
Crocker Ellacott added the hospital usually receives several weeks’ notice before vaccine shipments arrive in order to prepare for allocation. The hospital has the capacity to store more than 80,000 vaccines.
“We are hopeful following the next couple of weeks that our vaccine shipments and supply will increase dramatically,” she said.
The ramping up of COVID-19 vaccinations comes as the hospital continues to see an increasing number of patients admitted with the virus.
There are 13 individuals currently in hospital with COVID-19, including four in the intensive care unit.
“We are considering expanding our COVID-19 unit depending on community demand,” Crocker Ellacott said.
“At this point in time, we looked at our surgical plans. We are looking to reduce some of the long-stay surgical procedure bookings and move to more short stay or same-day bookings in preparation of a potential expansion of the COVID-19 unit.”
