Those looking to get their flu shots will have to wait a little bit longer.
According to Dr. David Colby, Chatham-Kent’s Medical Officer of Health, flu vaccines will be available to residents two weeks from now.
“I am signing the medical directives about authorizing the use of those,” said Colby.
Premier Doug Ford launched a campaign, encouraging Ontarians to get the flu shot. The flu vaccination campaign was announced as part of the first pillar of the province’s plan to deal with the second wave of COVID-19. Ford is hopeful this will help hospitals maintain capacity with the use of the flu shot.
Colby said he encourages residents to get their flu shots and hopes the uptake will be high.
“We want everyone to get the flu shot, and this is one of the only jurisdictions in the world where free flu shots are provided,” said Colby. “The challenge is getting people to get them.”
Although Colby is hopeful, there will be a high uptake, he is also hoping there will not be long lineups.
The province is also rolling out COVID-19 testing to 60 pharmacies across Ontario. However, Chatham-Kent likely won’t see any benefit.
Colby said with low active cases and no real community spread, the municipality isn’t considered a high need area at the moment.
“Asymptomatic people, people who have no exposure history, so they’re not part of an outbreak investigation, typically and especially in Chatham-Kent, have a very low positivity rate,” said Colby. “We seldom ever get positives that we’re not expecting, that are just a complete surprise out of the blue.
Colby says the idea behind allowing COVID-19 testing at pharmacies is to take the load off assessment centres in hot-spots like the GTA and Ottawa, where testing centres are seeing long lines and wait periods.
A full list of pharmacies planned to offer testing will be released at a later date.
Bird Bouchard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Ridgetown Independent News
