Windsor hospital CEO estimates region will get 2,500 doses of COVID-19 vaccine by year end

A local hospital CEO estimates Windsor will get 2,500 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in the first round of shipments.

In a board meeting Thursday evening, Windsor Regional Hospital CEO David Musyj said he anticipates that Windsor-Essex will receive the doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year.

He said the estimate of the number of doses allotted to Windsor-Essex out of the 85,000 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines that Ontario will receive is based on population.

With two doses required to vaccinate one person, Musyj said that that allotment would satisfy 1,250 people.

At this time, he said they are being told that distributions may vary depending on whether a region is in the province's 'red-control' or 'grey-lockdown' COVID-19 category. 

As of Thursday, Windsor-Essex is in the province's 'red-control' zone, though local health officials believe it is headed for a lockdown Friday. 

The region's COVID-19 active case total grew by 104 cases Thursday, leaving the region with 610 active cases. 

As of Thursday there are also 25 outbreaks across several sectors. 

Movement of vaccines

One challenge with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, Musyj said, is that it needs to be kept "ultrafrozen" — between -80  C and -60 C to be exact.  

While the hospital is equipped to store the vaccine at this temperature in three freezers, the movement and distribution is very particular, Musyj said, adding that they recently learned that Pfizer has allowed for the vaccine to only be moved four times in and out of the freezers to retain its effectiveness. 

"The more [the vaccine] moves or the more chances of it being taken out of 80 degrees, thawing and then individuals leaving it out for too long and or trying to put it back in reduces efficacy of the vaccine and create problems," he said, adding that because of this they need to "follow very strict requirements with respect to the acceptance of the vaccine and the actual vaccination of individuals."

This likely means that the first set of doses will be administered at a centre at Windsor Regional Hospital, Musyj said. 

"The goal eventually is yes, as more vaccines are made available, is to go out to those facilities and start vaccinating people as we go along it's going to require all hands on deck because if we just think about it we have 400,000 people in Windsor-Essex that need to get two doses," he said. 

These doses, he added, could be the only ones the region sees until 2021. 

Vaccine priority list

As for who will get it, Musyj said the province has outlined four key groups:

• Longterm care and retirement home residents and staff. 
• Hospital employees. 
• Indigenous populations. 
• Seniors with chronic healthcare conditions. 

But as for the priority within these four groups, Musyj said that will fall on the local public health unit to decide. 

"Our responsibility as Windsor Regional Hospital will be to accept the vaccine, to store it safely and then to help vaccinate individuals or actually do the vaccination of individuals," he said.