More than 1,500 take part in Aurora’s vaccine pop-up

June 3, 2021 · 0 Comments

1,515 people – including 839 youth eager to receive their first dose – descended on the Aurora Community Centre between Saturday and Monday to get their first doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.

The Aurora pop-up was just one of several that took place across York Region as the Province encourages people over the age of 12 to get their first inoculations ahead of a targeted “two-dose summer.”

Ontario announced new vaccine targets on Friday as part of an accelerated rollout aimed at getting second doses in arms, starting with individuals 80 years of age and older beginning this past Monday, May 31. York Region broadened its own eligibility to those born in 1951 and earlier on Wednesday.

“Team Ontario has shown what we can do when we have a steady and reliable source of vaccines,” said Premier Doug Ford in a statement. “Having made so much progress administering first doses, we are now in a position to begin delivering second doses for a two-dose summer. If we receive more vaccines from the Federal government, we’ll be able to accelerate our rollout further to offer more protection to Ontarians sooner.

By last week’s announcement, more than two-thirds of Ontario’s adult population had received at least one dose of a vaccine.

Now that individuals 80+ are eligible for their second doses Ontario-wide, the Province has released a tentative plan to get second doses into residents falling into other demographics. Individuals 70+ can begin to schedule their second doses beginning the week of June 14, with vaccines for those aged 69 and under based on when first doses were received.

The tentative schedule sets the week of July 19 for people who received their first dose between April 19 and May 9; August 2 for first doses administered between May 10 and May 30; August 9 – 16 for individuals between the ages of 12 and 25; and the week of August 9 for people who received their first doses on or after May 31.

“Every dose administered means we are one step closer to the end of the pandemic, and I encourage all Ontarians to get vaccinated and continue following public health advice,” said Deputy Premier and Health Minister Christine Elliott.

Added Dr. Karim Kurji, York Region’s Medical Officer of Health: “Getting residents fully vaccinated as soon as possible is a top priority for York Region Public Health. By starting to administer the second dose to this priority group (80+) two weeks earlier than expected, we anticipate being able to move to the 70-79 age group as early as mid-June. We are encouraging residents to continue to follow public health guidelines. We have come so far and we don’t want to waste the efforts and sacrifices we have already made to stop the spread of COVID-19. We know it is hard, but we ask for your continued patience as we make the final dash to the finish line.”

To register for your accelerated second dose when eligible, visit York.ca/Covid19vaccine.

POP-UP CLINIC FILLS UP FAST

There were several opportunities over this past weekend for people ages 12 and up to get their first doses across York Region.

On Saturday, Southlake Regional Health Centre and the Town of Newmarket held a socially-distanced festival-style event to bring families out while the Town of Aurora worked with the Province to transform the Aurora Community Centre into a three-day pop-up.

Originally slated to take place on Saturday and Sunday, the Aurora pop-up was extended by a day following tremendous uptake of the 1,200 appointments that were up for grabs between May 29 and 30.

The pop-up took place in eight tents set up in the Community Centre’s parking lot rather than inside the arena to allow for maximum flexibility.

“One of the nice things about the tents is we can design a system that enables us to essentially set up anywhere and it enables us to have a good work flow,” said clinic official Michael Adair just prior to welcoming the first patients on Saturday morning. “It enables us to transcend a particular location with all the equipment we need with a safe set up so we can register, vaccinate and observe people to ensure they are receiving their vaccine in the appropriate way and it enables us to do it in multiple locations.

“The most important thing for vaccines right now is when you can get a vaccine – get it. This is a great opportunity to get vaccinated and we thank everyone for coming out to this clinic or any clinic.”

The weekend event anticipated 600 people per day over three days, facilitated by 14 medical staff of nurses and paramedics and eight administrative support staff – including some members of the Town of Aurora team.

“We’re always welcome to additional clinics,” said Robin McDougall, Director of Community Services for the Town of Aurora. “We would be happy to host [another] if we can and I know the second dose will likely be somewhere downtown once again. We’re looking forward and we would be happy to host another one. We certainly had a great uptake!”

With the shifting directives from the Province, residents over the age of 80 were able to get their second doses at the clinic on Monday as well.

LOCAL STATS
As of Tuesday, June 1, Aurora has seen a total of 1,825 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 1,751 of which are now marked as recovered. Of the 27 active cases, all are attributed to local transmission, close contact, or unknown exposure.

701 cases have now been attributed to variants of concern, with 54 of them coming from a confirmed lineage.

There have been 47 fatalities attributed to the virus.