Different vaccine with less restrictions means shots can happen elsewhere: Public Health

By Keegan Kozolanka, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, GuelphToday.com

Jan 07, 2021

WELLINGTON COUNTY – COVID-19 vaccines will be administered at other sites in the region with a different vaccine or if storage and other requirements of the Pfizer vaccine are eased, says a public health spokesperson. 

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph (WDG) Public Health received its first doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week and gave the first shots on Wednesday at the Guelph head office on Chancellor’s Way.

Danny Williamson, communications specialist at WDG Public Health, said their office has an ultra-low temperature freezer that is capable of storing 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which has strict temperature storage requirements. 

“Because of those requirements, there are restrictions on transporting it once it gets to the site,” Williamson said.

This is why the doses were delivered to and being administered in Guelph but Williamson said this could change as other vaccines come to the region. 

“Those will have, it seems, less restrictions on moving them around,” Williamson said. “So once the Pfizer requirements change, or we start to get some of those other vaccines, that’s when our capacity for other places expands.”

This could be as soon as next week as Williamson said they are expecting doses of the Moderna vaccine. 

“I believe we’ll be able to do some administering in other places,” he said. “It’ll still get stored here but people won’t have to come here for the Moderna shot.”

Williamson said this could be at their other facilities, with community partners or on-site at long-term care facilities. 

“We know that COVID really takes a toll on seniors and a great many of the deaths unfortunately and the severe outcomes are seen in older people,” Williamson said. 

“That’s why you see the prioritization of the vaccine into long-term care and retirement homes as we know that’s a place that is a real concentration of vulnerable folks.”

Williamson stressed that WDG Public Health leadership don’t want to be a bottleneck in the vaccination process. 

“The goal is as soon as it’s here in the region, then it’s going into arms,” Williamson said. 

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“We got it (the vaccine) midday yesterday, it went into a few arms today and then by tomorrow we’re going to be at 250 doses a day here in our office. Then by next week we’re going to be at 500 doses a day.”