WECHU working on COVID-19 booster roll-out as eligibility expands

A look inside the former Sears building at Devonshire Mall May 28,2021(Michelle Maluske/CTV Windsor)

Windsor, Ont. -

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is connecting with health partners and exploring all options for the roll-out of COVID-19 booster shots as all adults will be eligible for a third dose next week.

The health unit says currently, the Devonshire Mall mass vaccination site is able to administer vaccines to 2,000 people per day, but it is working on pivoting resources to expand capacity.

“As with everything I think our team is great at pivoting and we have on and on throughout the pandemic. Since Friday we’ve been working on ramping up and redeploying our staff, connecting with all of our partners. So I think we’re as ready as we can be,” WECHU CEO Nicole Dupuis said during the health unit’s morning briefing.

The province announced on Wednesday it would be expanding the eligibility for COVID-19 boosters to anyone over the age of 18 starting Monday.

The WECHU has been connecting with health partners including Windsor Regional Hospital and the community to redeploy resources to expand capacity.

“I think it’s particularly important for people over 50 to get their third dose. And that’s a real priority. Secondly, I think like everything else in public health it’s a trade off as we curtail our activities for case and contact management to reassign people for vaccine, we’re trying our very best to work within the resources we have recognizing that we have to set a certain priority,” acting medical officer of health Dr. Shanker Nesathurai said.

“The sheer volume of the number of people that need to be vaccinated means that we need to bring on other lines of distribution. I’m hopeful that family doctors, more family doctors will supplement the distribution chain.”

The health unit also plans to tap into other channels that have not been fully utilized before including the medical school and area dentists to see if they can offer support.

“Every possible method to effectuate distribution we’re willing to explore and to try and get vaccines out to people as clinically appropriate,” Dr. Nesathurai said.

Residents looking to book a COVID-19 vaccination appointment can do so at WEVax.ca