No jabs at Alder for eight days

January 6, 2022 · 0 Comments

Written By Sam Odrowski

At a time when Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore said “We’re pulling out all the stops” for the province’s COVID-19 booster dose rollout, the Alder Recreation Centre ran zero clinics for eight days.

Vaccination clinics for booster doses were held leading up to Dec. 22, before stopping entirely until Dec. 30, making it difficult for Orangeville residents to get triple vaccinated.

Since then, clinics were held Jan. 2 and 5.

Looking ahead, clinics will be held
Jan. 7, 10, 12, and 14.

Near the end of the eight-day period when no vaccines were administered through the Alder Recreation Centre, Headwaters Health Care Centre announced they would be operating two community vaccine clinics on Dec. 29 and 30.

The 276 available appointments for both clinics were filled in less than an hour, showing the high demand for boosters locally.

As Ontario sees record numbers of COVID-19 cases, some Orangeville residents have been questioning why they’re being forced to travel to other regions or wait weeks for a local appointment to
get boosted.

Currently, the capacity of the Alder Recreation Centre is 400 to 450, while earlier in the year during the initial vaccine rollout, it had capacity to do up to 2,500 doses per day.

When asked why there was no clinics at Alder for eight days, Wellington Dufferin Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) emergency information officer Anna Vanderlaan said in an email, “WDG Public Health is working at full capacity to offer vaccination opportunities across our region over the coming weeks.”

Dufferin–Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones was contacted to comment but deferred to WDGPH.