London's vaccine clinic closes temporarily amid dose shortage
CBC News | Posted: January 20, 2021 8:00 PM | Last Updated: January 20, 2021
The Middlesex London Health Unit (MLHU) is closing the region's vaccine clinic for two weeks, citing shortages of Pfizer-BioNtech's COVID-19 vaccine and an already limited stock.
The health unit said Wednesday that it needed to prioritize long-term care home residents with the vaccines it has left.
The Western Fair Agriplex vaccine clinic will close at the end of day Friday. Healthcare workers who were booked for a return visit to receive their second shot are being rescheduled to 42 days from the date they received their initial dose.
"The closing of the Agriplex due to vaccine supply shortages is disappointing, but temporary," said Neil Johnson, chief operating officer of London Health Sciences Centre.
"We continue to advocate to the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force for adequate supplies and we recognize that we are at the very early stages of the vaccination program in this community."
Maj.-Gen. Dany Fortin, the military commander leading vaccine logistics for the federal government, said yesterday that Canadians should expect only 50 per cent of the promised Pfizer-BioNTech doses for the remainder of January.
Fortin said Canada will only get 82 per cent of the vaccine doses it expected this week, and no deliveries at all from Pfizer-BioNTech next week, before shipments resume in the last week of January.
The delays are due to the pharmaceutical company pausing production in a plant in Belgium in order to expand long-term manufacturing capacity.
Here at home, public health officials say they have enough stock left to complete the first round of inoculations at long term care homes by Friday.
If more vaccines arrive, the second dose for staff and residents will be givin within 21 to 27 days of the first dose. If not, this group may also have to be scheduled up to 42 days after their initial dose.
MLHU says 9,516 doses of vaccine have been administered at the Western Fair Agriplex since Dec. 23, with 1,497 additional doses being given in long-term care since Jan. 11.
Hospital staff had qualified for inoculations but that decision was reversed last week when the province said it had to shift priorities to long-term care homes.