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4,000 shots a day; Windsor Regional lifts the cover on its final mass vaccination site

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Windsor, Ont. -

The clinic is ready for patients inside the large space on the north end of Devonshire Mall, where the Sears store used to be.

It will open Monday morning for vaccine appointments.

“At this location we’ll be able to do up to 4,000 vaccines per day in an eight-hour period,” says Karen Riddell chief nursing executive for Windsor Regional Hospital, during a media tour Friday.

“We have 128 vaccination spots and 250 observation spots. So we can essentially vaccinate 128 people every 15 minutes,” she says.

The clinic is a bright space with tropical decor and colour scheme, a far cry from how it looked when they first toured the site a few months ago.

“It was very start, white, drab, lighting was very poor and what we wanted to do was make this somewhere that was pleasant to come to,” Riddell says.

Today is a bright open and airy space with vibrant colours throughout.

“It’s an esthetic but it adds that, makes people feel better about what they’re going through,” Riddell adds. “Its very practical as well.”

Patients will be assigned a colour to keep people separated from each other.

They will be assigned a colour for their shot and then a colour for their 15-minute observation.

An “observer” will watch two rows of patients to ensure they don’t have any side effects before clearing them to leave.

By day’s end Friday, the vaccine clinic at Windsor Hall in downtown Windsor will be closed, and the last of the equipment moved into the Devonshire Mall location.

“We are looking at July 21st for the last day for the Sportsplex to be running,” says Riddell.

The Sportsplex at St Clair College was initially designed as a field hospital, so it is less efficient according to Riddell where they can only do 100 shots every half hour.

“We’ve used about three-quarters of this location for vaccination and observation. But we are able to ramp up and actually do more vaccinations in the centre.”

Merging vaccination sites at St Clair and downtown, brings 1,500 vaccinations per day to Devonshire Mall.

“All other vaccination centres in Windsor-Essex will maintain their current operations until further notice,” Riddell says.

Windsor Regional Hospital has an agreement with the owners of Devonshire Mall, to operate in the space until March 31, 2022.

Riddell expects to have “the bulk” of residents vaccinated by September but they are planning to be in the mall location until the end of 2021.

“We’re really coming to the other side of the COVID pandemic,” says Riddell. “We’re getting back to normal. Getting a vaccine is a positive thing. It’s very exciting for people.”

Take a look inside the vaccination site here.

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