BREAKING: Hamilton to get Moderna vaccine early next week
Hamilton will receive a long-awaited small" batch of Moderna vaccine doses early next week, confirms Conservative MPP Donna Skelly.
But it remains unclear who will get the doses.
The arrival of the Moderna vaccine has been much-anticipated in Hamilton as it is the more portable of the two vaccines available in Canada - the other being Pfizer, which requires deep-cold storage.
Its arrival hopefully means long-term-care home residents will soon be vaccinated.
As for who will be receiving the vaccine, that will be determined by the local health team which is guided by provincial prioritization policies," said Skelly in an email to The Spectator on Friday afternoon.
In an email, spokesperson Jacqueline Durlov said public health still didn't have confirmation of a definite date" for the arrival of the Moderna vaccine.
Once it arrives, we will work to get it out as soon as possible," Durlov said. Vaccinating the residents of long-term care as soon as possible is definitely a priority, and in the next few days we will be sharing more information about this group."
The news comes three days after the province announced Hamilton was not a priority" hot zone selected for an accelerated vaccination program promising to vaccinate all long-term-care residents in Toronto, Peel, York and Windsor-Essex by Jan. 21. Hamiltonians, including Mark Robertson, whose father is in the crosshairs" at Shalom Village, a long-term-care home with a large COVID outbreak, decried the province's decision to leave Hamilton out. Hamilton's four NDP MPPs called on the province to include Hamilton in the accelerated plan in an open letter issued Friday.
Meanwhile, public health is reporting 200 new COVID cases Friday, three new deaths and six new outbreaks.
There is little The Spec can tell you about the new deaths. It appears one is from the Meadows long-term-care home, according to public health's outbreak chart, but information on the chart is often reclassified. On Friday, public health removed four deaths from the chart - two from Shalom Village, one from St. Elizabeth's Retirement Residence and one from Hamilton General Hospital's 7 West neurosurgery unit.
It remains unclear why.
Asked why the deaths were removed public health said data is subject to change.
Some reasons for fluctuation include ongoing investigation and data collection, transfers between health units, error detection and linking/unlinking cases to outbreaks," said spokesperson Jacqueline Durlov in response to a similar query this week. Public health services continues to encourage the public and members of the media to focus on the trends we are seeing in the community rather than single-day data fluctuations."
The three new deaths include one person in their 70s and two older than 80. Hamilton has recorded a total of 196 COVID deaths since the pandemic began. A COVID death means the person died with COVID, not necessarily because of it.
Meanwhile, the city's per cent positivity rate jumped to six per cent Friday from less than five the day before. This means six per cent of recent COVID tests were positive.
And as Ontario reported more than 4,200 COVID cases Friday, Premier Doug Ford struck a sombre tone at his media briefing.
This is so, so serious, matter of fact, this is the most serious situation we've ever been in ever, ever - since the beginning of this pandemic," Ford said, pleading with the federal government to send more vaccines to Ontario, warning the province is quickly running out."
Ford warned that more extreme measures" are to come if Ontarians don't heed public health guidance. He didn't say what those measures might be.
In Hamilton, six new outbreaks were reported Friday. They include: Janco Steel Ltd., which has 20 cases in staff; Cardinal Retirement Residence, which has two cases in residents; Idlewyld Manor, which has one case in a staff member; Arbour Creek Long-Term Care Centre, which has one case in a staff member; Baycoat, a steel company, which has five staff cases; and Ridgeview Long-Term Care Home, which has one case in a staff member.
Cardinal had an outbreak in the first wave that resulted in nine deaths. Idlewyld had an outbreak in November that resulted in 25 cases and one death before it was declared over on Dec. 27.
Rick Nordeman, human resources and safety manager with Janco Steel, said the company reported the cases to public health on Monday. All 20 staff affected are all doing well and, thankfully, he said, none have severe symptoms.
The outbreak affects two of the four steel plants in Hamilton, he said. The company has not had to halt operations.
It's possible that there may be more (cases), but I hope not," Nordeman said.
There are 32 active outbreaks in Hamilton.
Two outbreaks are now over: one was at Dundurn Place Care Centre, which had two staff cases, and the other was at Extendicare Hamilton, which had one staff case.
As of Friday, Hamilton has 7,198 total cases, of which nearly one quarter - 1,675 cases - are active and 5,243 are resolved. A total of 473 cases have been hospitalized.
There are 30 COVID patients at St. Joseph's Healthcare and 63 at Hamilton Health Sciences, for a total of 93.
Katrina Clarke is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach her via email: katrinaclarke@thespec.com