Vaccine supply from province not keeping up with demand, say local health officials

Health officials in the Ottawa region say they don't have enough COVID-19 vaccine supply to keep up with the demand, which isamplified by the province expanding eligibility faster than expected.

When asked why the city's vaccination rates seem to be falling behind other regions in the province, Ottawa's Medical Officer of Health Dr. Vera Etchesexplained that certain areaslike Kingston, Ont., which arepart ofthe pharmacy pilot project, areallocated more doses by the province.

The same goes for regions where COVID-19 has had a greater impact.

"The differencesyou're seeing across the province are absolutely connected to how much vaccine different areas get per capita, per population at risk," Etches said.

She also pointed to the Ontario government widening the eligibility criteria at a faster rate than expectedwhen it decided to move people 80 and older into Phase 1 of its rollout plan.

Ottawa has a largenumber of health-care workers that public healthis still working to get through that theprovince has asked be prioritized, Etches said.

Priority should be seniors

It's a problem Renfrew County is also experiencing the number of people eligible doesn't align with the supply the district is receiving, says its acting medical officer of health.

Dr. Rob Cushman said his health unit will get enough doses for about 10,000 people in the next three weeks, but the number of thosethat qualify is well beyond that. There are about800 voicemails from people "irate because they're under the age of 80 and they want to know when they can get a vaccine," Cushman said.

"There's really no roomfor them at this point," he said.

Renfrew County medical officer of health asks for patience due to low vaccine supply

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Dr. Robert Cushman says the health unit will only receive 10,000 doses of vaccine in the next three weeks which wont be enough to vaccinate everyone eligible in the county.

About 50 per cent of those vaccinated in the region are health-care workers but Cushmanargues the priority should be seniors first.

"We can't currently vaccinate them because we're toobusy dealing with these other priority groups that we haven't completed yet," Cushman said.

Cushman said it's likely the unit could double or triple its vaccination rate if supply were available.

Provincial government waiting on feds

In a statement to CBC, a spokesperson for the province said it "aims to achieve a balanced and equitable distribution of vaccines to health units, but recognize that these rates may vary over time."

"As vaccine delivery and availability stabilizes, future allocations will be more in line with the population of each health unit, while taking into consideration additional priority populations based on local and emergent needs."

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It went on to say the province itself has a far greater capacity to immunize its population than the supply it's currently receiving from the federal government.

"We look forward to distributing more vaccines as we receive more supply from the federal government," reads the statement.