Medical teams treating COVID-19 patients now eligible for vaccine
Nurses at assessment centres and critical care teams can now get their first dose of the vaccine
Physicians and medical teams working to treat COVID-19 patients are among the latest wave of people eligible to receive a vaccine in the London region.
New doses have arrived, according to the Middlesex London Health Unit, which said Tuesday it can now expand the inoculation list.
Frontline health care workers whom the province considers "highest priority" now qualify, as do employees at long-term care and retirement homes and essential caregivers.
Medical First Responders, including paramedics and firefighters, are also eligible.
The health unit says there are now enough doses to ensure the second shot is given within 35 days of the first.
The region's vaccine rollout plan was put on hold for several weeks at the end of January after Pfizer failed to deliver promised doses to Canada.
The region's primary vaccine clinic run out of the Western Fair's Agriplex reopened for second dose appointments on Feb. 08.
All told, the health unit says some 25,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to residents in long-term care and high-risk retirement homes, as well as select healthcare staff.
"This is the next step in bringing the pandemic under control," said Medical Officer of Health Dr. Chris Mackie in a statement.
"Today's announcement allows us to go from completing the course of vaccination for the thousands who had received a first dose, to actually growing the number of people who are protected across our region."
The expanded inoculation list includes people living in areas covered by Southwestern Public Health and Huron Perth Public Health.
Indigenous adults in northern remote and higher-risk communities can also be inoculated.
For more information on how the province is prioritizing who gets inoculated, see the Ministry of Health's criteria.