Health unit focusing on vaccinations

Southwestern Public Health will focus all its efforts on delivering COVID-19 vaccinations, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Joyce Lock said in a news briefing on Thursday, Dec. 16.

That comes after Premier Doug Ford announced Wednesday, Dec. 15, that in response to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of the virus, anyone 18 and older with two doses of vaccine would be eligible to receive a third, as long as it has been at least three months since their last dose.

Previously, third vaccinations were open to those 50 and older, and at least six months needed to have passed since the second dose.

Dr. Lock urged anyone 50 or older to book immediately, to avoid the rush when the expanded eligibility came into effect, if they’d had their second dose at least three months ago.

In response to a question from the Express, she said, Southwestern’s mass vaccination clinics would indeed be ready to begin accepting appointments for those 18 and older starting Monday, Dec. 20.

Plans were under way to expand those clinics to their maximum capacity in order to distribute those third doses, as well as continue to deliver first and second doses to those who hadn’t yet been fully immunized, she said.

Vaccination, she stressed, was the best way to avoid hospitalization and/or death from COVID-19. “Two doses are good, a third is better.”