The Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit’s (HKPR) Medical Officer of Health Dr. Ian Gemmill said Haliburton County will have at least two vaccination clinics.
He explained Wednesday that each County in HKPR’s medical region will have at least two clinics. Dr. Gemmill did not say where the potential clinics will be locally, though, noting that plans still need to be finalized with municipalities. He said the internal deadline to figure out where the clinics will be is the middle of the next week. “I don’t want to put anyone on the spot until we have that hammered out,” he said.
When are do open, Dr. Gemmill said the plan is to have them running and getting shots in residents’ arms every day. “The key to this is accessibility,” he said.
What’s making planning for the future difficult is that the Health Unit doesn’t know when more vaccines will arrive, according to Dr. Gemmill. He said they received 4,500 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine Monday, but if all goes according to plan, those will be used up by early next week. “We’ve been asked to get this vaccine into the eligible people as quickly as possible,” he said of the latest shipment.
Dr. Gemmill noted that the Health Unit will likely use volunteers to help with the clinics. He explained that qualified people are needed to inoculate residents, but there would be no issue having volunteers help check people in when they arrive for their appointments. “We don’t need a nurse at the door or checking that people have the necessary identification,” he said.