FERGUS - The County of Wellington opened its first mass vaccination centre on Friday, with a capacity to eventually manage up to 5,000 people a day — but only after supply of vaccines is in abundance.
One ice pad at the Centre Wellington Sportsplex transformed into a clinic over the past two weeks after the county received a request from Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health to provide a site in the county for vaccinations.
“We said very clearly that we didn’t want to be the bottleneck,” said Kelly Linton, warden of Wellington County. “As the vaccine supply came in we wanted to get needles in arms as fast as possible and we said to Public Health ‘what do you need from us?’ and they said people to help with the administration and they said facilities.”
The clinic opened on Friday with capacity to vaccinate up to 500 people per day, but that number can eventually be scaled up to 5,000 per day once vaccine supply is available, said Danny Williamson, communications specialist at WDG Public Health.
“It’s really about being ready to scale up quickly as the vaccine comes in, rather than having to figure this out when it comes here,” said Williamson. “You don’t want to get the supply and then get ready, we want to be ready when it arrives here.”
About 300 people were scheduled to receive the Pfizer vaccine at the clinic on Friday, with about the same number of people expected to receive it on Saturday. An additional 500 people were scheduled to receive their shot Friday at WDG Public Health headquarters in Guelph.
Most of those people in attendance at the Sportsplex on Friday received their second dose of the vaccine after having travelled to Guelph last month for their first shot.
Those receiving their second shot are mostly staff at long-term care homes and retirement homes, but the clinic was also offering some first shots to essential caregivers, who are next on the list according to the province’s ethical framework for vaccine distribution.
Williamson said a small number of people were turned away early Friday when they arrived at the clinic but were not eligible to receive vaccines yet. That forced WDG Public Health to send out a clarification about who is eligible and who is not.
“We have had some of that and we are working to clarify that as fast as we can,” said Williamson.
He said the trick right now is for everyone to be patient.
“There are more than 300,000 people in our region and it’s going to take us time to get them all vaccinated. People need to follow those public health measures until we get there.”
Shirley Bott is an essential caregiver to her 95-year-old mother Irene Halls, who is a resident at nearby Highland Manor.
Bott said the pandemic has been challenging for her, with window visits during the lockdowns and trying to care for her mother while maintaining physical distance and other public health protocols.
“It has been very difficult,” said Bott.
It took about 20 minutes for Bott to make her way through registration and the waiting line before receiving her shot. She said she is getting vaccinated more to protect her mother than herself so she can be more confident in providing her with essential care.
The concrete floor of the ice pad served as the vaccination area, with seating at one end for people to be observed immediately after receiving their shot. The building’s lobby was used for registration and the vaccines were stored and mixed by public health nurses in one of the dressing rooms.
Paul Johnson is the vaccination effort coordinator for the county. He said similar clinics will be set up in the north of the county in the future, as supply of the vaccine becomes available.
The two-week conversion of the Sportsplex into a vaccination clinic taught Johnson and his team a lot about the potential hiccups they may experience along the way, including the need for the vaccination stations to be wired for electricity and internet for the workstations.
Johnson said the Sportsplex has proven to be just about the perfect venue for a mass immunization clinic.
“Mostly from the parking lot and the fact they have the emergency generator here for the freezer, as well as wide-open spaces for people and the accessibility to the building,” he said.
Linton said the cost of converting the Sportsplex is still being calculated.
“If we can get some relief by the province after the fact, that would be nice because it’s a sacrifice for us, for sure,” said Linton. “We have groups that are wanting to use this facility. We just opened up but we said this is our priority — putting needles in arms.”
As more supply of vaccine becomes available, Williamson said the public should expect more clinics to pop up across the region.
“This is what ending the pandemic is, what ending the lockdown will look like,” said Williamson. “This is what can happen in two and a half weeks when people take this extremely seriously and put all hands on deck to make this work.”
