For the third time over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lambton's top doctor took to the airwaves on CHOK (103.9FM/1070AM) Thursday morning.
Medical Officer of Health Dr. Sudit Ranade answered vaccine-related calls from local listeners for 90 minutes.
The majority of the callers asked about vaccine-supply, timeline and mixing vaccines for second doses.
Dr. Ranade said locally, the goal is to give the same vaccine for both shots.
"Right now, we want you to get your second dose with the same vaccine," said Dr. Ranade. "We have those things on file which is why right now our second dose strategy is that when they get there we are going to book people for second dose appointments because we know what vaccine they got. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has made the suggestion that if you have no choice, you might be able to interchange. But, right now the goal is to give people the same vaccine as they had the first time."
He said to date nearly 69,000 doses have been administered to Lambton residents, including over 5,400 second doses. That's nearly 59 per cent of the eligible population.
The topic of reopening schools also came up during the call in show.
Dr. Ranade said learning is a social process and hopes to see students return to in-person learning before the end of the school year.
"The educators are saying that even if it's a week or two, there are tremendous benefits to having our kids back in that school environment," he said. "Listening to them, and also understanding the science about kids and how they spread or don't spread the disease, I think it's still really important to get our schools back up and running."
To catch all of Thursday's program visit www.chok.com.