Just in time, a third shipment of the Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19 has arrived at Windsor Regional Hospital.
Without it, the hospital said it would have run out of doses by the end of Wednesday.
The vaccine has been reserved mainly for frontline healthcare workers at the region's hospitals, along with long-term care and retirement homes. The Windsor Essex County Health Unit has vaccinated all staff that are not ill at all 44 long-term care facilities, and has already begun inoculating staff at retirement homes.
The vaccine is most effective if the recipient has two doses two weeks apart, but in a bid to vaccinate as many people as possible, public health officials have not been holding back shots for the second injection.
"We are 'stealing' future doses by putting as many vaccines into people's arms as soon as possible, as directed by the province," said CEO David Musyj. "It's the right thing to do."
The first shipment arrived on December 22, followed by a second on January 5.
Since then, nearly 5,600 people have received their initial shot. Windsor Regional Hospital has been able to inoculate 500 people a day.
