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In the meantime, Hillier said the Ontario plan is on target.
“You know we realized early on that our mission was a marathon, not just a sprint, and we had to be ready for longer term,” Hillier told reporters.
He said that Ontario’s Phase 1 started with the first arrival of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine earlier in December, with a directive from the province to protect the most vulnerable, those being patients in long-term care homes, as well as frontline health-care workers. This also includes home staff and essential visitors to those homes.
Hillier added that efforts would be underway soon to vaccinate more LTC residents with the newer Moderna vaccine, which is easier to transport as it does not require extreme cold refrigeration the way the Pfizer vaccine does.
“As of this moment, we do not have the Moderna vaccine in our hands in Ontario, but we expect it in the next 24 hours,” said Hillier.
He said medical teams will take delivery at four areas in southern Ontario, primarily lockdown zones, which Hillier described as hot zones “where COVID-19 is ravaging the population.”
While this is underway, Hillier said it doesn’t mean other parts of Ontario’s population are being ignored.
“I would speak to the First Nations here and just say be assured that those people in the long-term care homes or retirement homes that are First Nations are going to be looked after as part of this priority also,” said Hillier.
He added that this includes the workers in those First Nations nursing homes.
