First York Region health care worker receives COVID-19 vaccine at new Vaughan hospital

‘I feel great’: 62-year-old personal support worker Juanito Driz

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 23, 2020
Sheila Wang

With a jab in his left arm, Juanito Driz became the first health care worker to receive the Pfizer  COVID-19 vaccine in York Region on Dec. 22.
The 62-yer-old personal support worker held court at a new COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Vaughan as he took the first dose of the vaccine against the novel coronavirus shortly after 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

Driz squinted his eyes and furrowed his brow briefly when the needle went into the arm. As soon as the injection was complete, the health care worker got up and smiled under his mask.

“I feel great,” Driz told phyisically distanced camera crews with a Band-Aid on his arm after the first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination took place at the yet-to-open Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital.

Driz, of Scarborough, who has worked at Langstaff Square Care Community in Richmond Hill for 17 years, said he jumped at the opportunity to get vaccinated because he’s made a commitment to do “what I can to protect all the people around me.”

After taking some rest on the side, Driz said he felt his left arm getting a little “heavy” when lifting and moving it slowly.

It felt just like getting a flu shot, Driz said with a chuckle.

Driz was among the first who have been contacted for the COVID-19 shot in York Region after Mackenzie Health and Southlake Regional Health Centre were designated to begin immunization as part of the first phase of the province’s three-phase vaccine distribution implementation plan.

The brief prick of a needle not only ended a nine-month-long wait for a vaccine against a merciless virus that has taken away 335 lives in the region as of Dec. 21, but also marked the start of what’s expected to be a six- to eight-month-long vaccination rollout plan across Ontario.

“This is the one ray of light that we have. It’s been really cloudy for the last number of months. Staff are tired. They’re overworked. They don’t see an end to this. They now see the vaccine. This gives us hope and everybody jumped to be involved this with,” Altaf Stationwala, president and CEO of Mackenzie Health, told yorkregion.com.
The president said he was very proud of the staff who have worked at one of the busiest hospital in the province dealing with COVID-19 patients while preparing for the opening of the new hospital in Vaughan.

It was a “logical” choice to select the Vaughan hospital as the new vaccine clinic as it has the right space not being used yet as well as the required hospital equipment, Stationwala said.

On the soft launching day on Dec. 22, about 50 to 100 people were expected to be vaccinated, he said.

About 350 to 400 people will receive vaccinations per day once the clinic starts to operate regularly, Stationwala said.

After taking the first dose, Driz was due back to receive the second one in 21 days to complete the vaccination against COVID-19.

Ontario’s rollout plan prioritizes health care workers like Driz, essential caregivers who work in hospitals, long-term care homes and retirement homes and other congregate settings.

A number of people across York Region have received calls asking if they were interested in taking the vaccines so far.

The province also indicated it will prioritize regions that have the highest rates of infection.

Ontario is expected to receive 90,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from December 2020 to January 2021, when an estimated 35,000 to 85,000 doses of Moderna vaccine – pending Health Canada approval – are expected to arrive as well.