No vaccines for Chatham-Kent residents quite yet, but plans are in the works for when it is.
Earlier this week, shots started being administered in Windsor-Essex and London.
Lori Marshall, CEO of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance says the idea is to get the shots out to those in red and grey levels in other parts of the province first.
“Let’s get the vaccine out to where people are most vulnerable right now, and that helps to protect us as well. Then we will eventually be part of the roll-out as well.”
Marshall says a task force has been put together with public health and other partner agencies to form an implementation plan once the vaccine arrives.
“I don’t think any of us have every done a logistical challenge quite like this,” Marshall says. “We will want to make sure we’re able to, not only respond in the short term to long term care and some of the areas that have been identified as priorities, but also we’re going to make sure whatever we set up we can sustain and set up, and make sure we can most efficiently and effectively get vaccines out to everybody in the community as soon as we possibly can.”
The task force is being headed up by former fire chief Bob Crawford, who also helped to set up the CKHA field hospital at the start of the pandemic and was instrumental in organizing the back-to-school plan for the St Clair Catholic District School Board over the summer.