The second shot of the COVID-19 vaccine for emergency services will be delayed to increase the number of individuals receiving the first shot of vaccine.
Today’s Northumberland received a letter from Acting Medical Officer of Health for the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit to municipalities.
It stated:
To our Municipal Partners,
We understand that many of your staff, more specifically first responders have been receiving notice of cancelled 2nd vaccine dose appointments.
We received policy direction from the province that all second dose immunizations were to be pushed out to 4 months beyond the 1st dose. Our hospital partners across the health unit area were advised on this basis to cancel all appts for second doses.
Given that many first responders and health care workers have received 2 doses in other regions, we appreciate the inequity that this creates for some areas of the province including HKPR. The Government of Ontario has made a policy direction change to provide partial protection more broadly at this time. This direction is intended to ensure not only that as many people as possible can be offered a first dose, but also that the overall community protection is increased. This strategy has a lot of value, as with increasing community protection, there will less circulation of the coronavirus, and the whole province will be better off.
Please find attached policy direction all public health units received across the province in this regard. If you have any specific questions, please do let us know. Please forward this message to your municipalities and the EMS, fire and police services that take care of your areas.
Kind regards,
Ian
Dr. Ian Gemmill, MD, FRCPC
Acting Medical Officer of Health
Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit
Emergency services in some areas were expecting to get their second shot of the vaccine in the coming days.
While other emergency services haven’t been notified of the delay as of March 15, 2021..
Today’s Northumberland will update with information, but the delay for all emergency services is believed to be Province wide.
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
