THUNDER BAY - Sean Bolton, a personal support worker with St. Joseph’s Care Group, was more than willing to roll up his sleeve and become the first person in the city of Thunder Bay to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Being a PSW for as long as I have I feel like I should lead by example and I always have,” he said. “To be the first one to get it was actually a great honour and pride and to show everyone else that it will be good and fine and hopefully we’ll be able to get over this hump.”
The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre received it’s first shipment of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Monday and began immunizations for long-term care workers Tuesday morning.
The hospital was among several additional sites to receive 90,000 doses of the vaccine, but due to security reasons, the exact amount sent to Thunder Bay cannot be disclosed.
The province’s COVID-19 vaccine taskforce has determined front-line long-term care workers will be the top priority to receive the vaccine first.
“This is why we are moving forward with long-term care frontline staff first,” said Rhonda Crocker Ellacott, president and CEO of the TBRHSC. “It’s to support the most vulnerable within our population and we’ve certainly seen that the long-term care residents are very vulnerable.”
Several long-term care homes in the city have reported outbreaks of COVID-19, with Southbridge Roseview Manor seeing more than 70 cases and 14 resident deaths.
“The priority is homes that are not in outbreak,” Crocker Ellacott said. “The concern is if you start to vaccinate staff in homes with an outbreak home, you may have more issues with staffing for a very short period while you vaccinate.”
Tracy Buckler, president and CEO with St. Joseph’s Care Group, which oversees Hogarth Riverview Manor and Bethammi Nursing Home, said the vaccine will be voluntary for all front-line staff.
“We are starting off slowly because it’s the prudent thing to do,” she said. “We need to work very collaboratively to establish a process to make sure people are coming in and coming back after the 21 days. It really is our hope that the majority of our staff choose to be vaccinated.”
“Being able to protect those residents and our staff and their families, the resident’s families is very important. It’s a very exciting day.”
The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre will also be vaccinating health care workers who will be administering the vaccine in remote First Nation communities.
“We don’t have the direct knowledge of the northern remote strategy,” Crocker Ellacott said. “We are working with the provincial and federal government on the strategy. What we know is our hospital will have a role to vaccinate the workers who will deliver the vaccines to remote communities.”
Hospital staff are not being vaccinated with this first shipment, as the priority remains long-term care workers, and while there is no delivery date for any more shipments of the Pfizer vaccine, Crocker Ellacott said there will be more vaccines coming to the region during phase two of the roll out.
“The anticipation is the Moderna vaccine will become available in the near future and it is likely that vaccine will be the one that travels to remote northern communities,” she said.
And while the vaccine is voluntary, Bolton said he hopes other front-line workers in long-term care will follow his example.
“Trust science. They have some of the best minds in the world working on this. Don’t’ listen to social media. There’s so much negativity. Have faith in science and get the shot,” he said.
“I think it’s an important step in the right direction to get past COVID. The health of the residents is vitally important, as well as my co-workers. All it takes is one person. We want to put a stop to this and hopefully, we don’t get any more outbreaks.”
– TBayNewsWatch
