The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit confirmed it will be in the position to open vaccine appointments to all residents 18 and older by the week of May 24 as the province announced Thursday.
“I am confident that we will be in that position and follow the timeline that the province has set up,” said Medical Officer of Health Dr. Wajid Ahmed.
To date, 151,398 residents, or 33.8 per cent of the Windsor-Essex population, have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Over the next two weeks, vaccine supply is expected to increase dramatically. The region is expected to receive 22,000 doses the week of May 3 and the week of May 10. But that’s expected to drop to around 17,000 doses the following week. During the month of April, the region received around 10,000-12,000 doses a week.
On Monday, the health unit will be hosting two pop-up clinics for residents in hot-spot areas in the west-end and the downtown area of Windsor. The clinics will be open to residents 18 years and older who live and work in those areas. Appointments are not required for these clinics.
The health unit has decided not to widely publicize the location of the two clinics until Monday. The health unit is working with community partners in the targeted regions to spread the word about the pop-up clinics.
‘It won’t be something that we want to invite people from all over to come to the area, it’s for people who actually live there and would be able to be in close proximity to the vaccination sites that we will announce on Monday,” said CEO and Chief Nursing Officer Theresa Marentette.
It’s expected the clinics will run from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. unless vaccines run out. About 1,000 vaccines have been allocated for the pop-up clinics.
The health unit also expects to open its registration system for residents 18 and older in hotspot areas some time next week. Identified hotspot regions in Windsor-Essex are in the following postal code areas, N8X, N8Y, N9A, N9B, N9C, N8H, and N9Y.
For more information on current vaccine eligibility criteria, visit wevax.ca.