By Pepper Parr
January 11th, 2021
BURLINGTON, ON
Vaccinations are taking place now and there is a plan to do the mass vaccinations that will be needed to bring this virus to heel.
The big picture: sets out the rate at which the city and the Region will get us all vaccinated.
The city administration created a Task Force that would work directly with the Regional Public Health Office which has asked the city to find a possible three locations at which vaccinations can be administered.
The make-up of the Task Force – city side
They asked that one of the three be the Haber Recreation Centre which has been used in the past for measles vaccinations.
The way this will roll out is to have the city providing the space with the required security, backup power supply and the on hand staffing that will be needed. Parking and transit access were also important.
The public will be given details on who is to show up when.
Council learned that it is going to be many months before everyone is vaccinated. Sheila Jones, one of the Executive Directors, who guided the presentations made by staff said she thought it could be completed by August.
There are three phases to the plan. The time lines for each phase are not cast in stone. All the people who are working on this task are fully aware that everything is both fluid and dynamic.
Some people may be getting their vaccinations at a Doctor’s Office; some may get their vaccination at a pharmacy, assuming they are part of the picture.
Who does what?
Burlington Fire Chief Karen Rocke will work with City Staffer Amber Rushton to lead to Vaccination Task Force
Amber Rushton and Fire Chief Karen Roche are the staff members leading this Task Force. More on Ms Rushton in a separate article.
The Plan they are administering so that vaccinations can be given quickly and efficiently includes:
Having the needed equipment in place
Staffing
Site set up
Traffic control
Site security
Public safety and volume management.
Sites that are set up will have to stay in place until the public vaccination is complete – we are talking about many months.
There will be a military liaison person attached to the Task Force as well as someone from the Mayor’s office – that was defined as the Mayor’s Chief of Staff Victoria Al Samadi.
The Task Force reports directly to the Emergency Control Group weekly.
One of the problems that has plagued this health crisis is the, at times, very poor messaging by the province.
The Regional Public Health Network hasn’t earned all that many gold stars for the way it has communicated with a worried public. However, they have been good at getting data out.
Reporting structure is a work in progress at this point – but there are very good people in place to make it all happen.
This next phase is going to require very tight communication between the city – they are going to provide a location that is ready the moment the nurses walk through the door ready to put needles in arms – and the Region, that is going to bring the thousands of doses that will be needed to the location and ensure that there are enough nurses on hand to work from 8:30 am to about 5:30 pm seven days a week.
There are still a lot of questions to be answered. Things will be moving very quickly by the end of the month when the public vaccination takes place.
One message to the public: the City and the Region have a very firm grip on what has to be done. The role for individuals is to be patient and to trust the civil servants to do their jobs. The really do know what they are doing.
I am assuming there will be more info on how we are to know where to go and when>