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Here\u2019s another important aspect of this less than transparent vaccine rollout process: Only 33,000 of 60,000 (or 55%) of retirement home residents have received their first dose so far.<\/p>\n
As for essential caregivers, a figure I asked for more than once, by Friday 6,300 LTC essential caregivers had been vaccinated at least once and the same for 2,900 essential caregivers working in retirement homes.<\/p>\n
So much for a deadline of Feb. 10.<\/p>\n
Considering 442,000 doses of the vaccine have gotten into arms as of Friday, according to the province\u2019s own stats, and accounting for the fact that some of those would include second doses (according to the government stats, 150,000 Ontario residents are fully vaccinated), you\u2019ve got to wonder who got the other doses \u2014 more than 250,000 at the very least.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can certainly be blamed for messing up the supply issue. Of that there is no doubt.<\/p>\n
That said, with numbers like these, it\u2019s hard to believe LTC and retirement homes were the province\u2019s priority.<\/p>\n
What exactly is the COVID vaccine distribution task force doing \u2014 or do they know what they\u2019re doing \u2014 when the Minister and the Premier are forced to backtrack about the number of LTC residents vaccinated.<\/p>\n
Mehra said the number of doses given in Ontario to date were \u201cmore than enough\u201d to vaccinate all LTC and retirement home residents with the first and second doses.<\/p>\n
It is bordering on unconscionable that after 3,706 deaths \u2014 and more in the second wave \u2014 that the province and its task force are still playing Russian Roulette with the lives of vulnerable seniors.<\/p>\n
As I noted on Wednesday, 963 LTC residents died waiting for the vaccine, while the task force and the government fumbled the ball between Dec. 31 and Feb. 7. This figure is from Ontario\u2019s own statistics.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis (vaccinating LTC and retirement home residents) was supposed to be and should have been the priority,\u201d Mehra said. \u201cLike so much else (with long-term care), there are all kinds of promises (made) and they never happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is either incompetence or they are (outright) lying when they say they\u2019re going to do these things,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n