Vaccination plans firm up as permanent centre opens in Kingston

Jeff Green | Mar 03, 2021

The easiest way for Frontenac County residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19 will be to use the provincial booking system and then make an appointment at the vaccination centre at the Invista complex on Gardiners Road in Kingston, which opened on Monday.

Although the booking system is having a soft launch in the Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington region this week, it will not be available to the general public until the official launch, which the province is hoping to have in place on March 15.

The Invista Centre mass immunization clinic will be able to administer 3,000 vaccinations per day, and will be part of a system that will have a capacity of 7,000 shots per day, Dr. Kieran Moore, the medical officer of health, told a media availability at the Invista Centre on Monday.

He said that, if supplies of vaccine are available, that number could be bumped up to 10,000 a day, enough capacity to vaccinate the entire KFL&A population, with two shots, in only 40 days.

At the Invista Centre clinic, nurses from KFLAPH (Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington Public Health) will be administering the vaccine. At the pop up, or satellite clinics, that are being set in Northbrook, Sharbot Lake and Harrowsmith will be operated as a partnership between local family physicians working in the rural areas, Lennox and Addington County General Hospital, Lennox & Addington paramedics and KFLAPH.

“In some areas it will be one day a week. The local family physicians will be able to review their patient records of individuals that would be eligible (over 80, over 70, over 60 etc.), contact and inform them, and upload them into a booking system, if the individuals can't do that themselves” said Jenn Fagan, communications officer with KFLAPH.

She added that with the “online booking system, the second dose will be booked at the same time as the first dose is booked (with 3 weeks in between). Currently KFL&A Public Health are booking the second dose dates for the individuals we are vaccinating now.”

Further information including “eligibility, location and dates will be well advertised in advance”.

Before the pop up clinics open, however, KFLAPH is planning to get out to retirement homes in rural areas.

“Our primary objective right now is to continue immunizing those individuals that are living in long term care and retirement homes, as well as the workers and essential care givers in those environments.

“In northern parts of our region, we are physically going into long term care and retirement homes and setting up immunization clinics. It is our goal to get the first and second doses complete in these high risk environments. We have partnered with family health teams in our northern areas to make sure our community has access to the vaccine and that people do not have to travel long distances.”

For people who are living at home and are receiving home-care support, attempts are being made to deliver vaccines directly to the home. In a video describing priority groups, Dr. Moore identified this population as a stage 1 priority, to be covered before the mass vaccination of the over 80 population gets underway.

“To vaccinate homebound individuals, we would partner with the home care service (if the individual is receiving home care service), to be able to provide immunization at their home. This may include help from paramedics or the home care’s nurse,” said Jenn Fagan.

Populations that are not covered in this early group include people living in senior's apartments, and elderly people who do not receive formal homecare services through the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN).

However, Fagan said that if there are facilities that “have a high number of seniors” who cannot easily access a vaccine otherwise, “we will set up one day clinics”.

While work continues apace to prepare for a vaccination program for the general public, starting with people who are over 80 years old, vaccination in the region is still relegated to the priority groups that were identified back in December of 2020.

It could be another two weeks until a clear timeline is identified for the beginning of stage 2, which will mark the start of the mass vaccination of all residents in KFL&A.

The target for the completion of this vaccination program remains the late summer.