'It doesn't make sense': East Gwillimbury only municipality in region without vaccine site planned

Nearest locations in Newmarket or Georgina

Yorkregion.com
March 3, 2021
Simon Martin

East Gwillimbury resident Marilyn Castagna has been checking COVID-19 numbers daily for close to a year. The River Drive Park resident is concerned to that things are opening up too fast.

“I’m tired of hearing we need a balanced approach,” she said. “I haven’t been in a mall over a year.”

But that’s not the only thing she is concerned about. The 59-year-old is also worried because, currently, there doesn’t appear to be a vaccine location in East Gwillimbury, making it the only municipality in York Region where a location isn’t currently in the works.

That means Castagna would have to go to Newmarket, King or Georgina to get her vaccine.

“To me it doesn’t make sense,” she said. “I am very frustrated. There is a lot of elderly that live in East Gwillimbury."

She is not the only one frustrated. Mayor Virginia Hackson voiced her displeasure with the region’s omission of East Gwillimbury from its vaccine plan at the council meeting Feb. 25.

“It’s a bad message when one municipality out of nine doesn’t have a site,” she said. “The last plan that we saw for locations didn’t include East Gwillimbury. My residents are certainly aware of that. People are quite anxious about the absence of location.”

Hackson said three is a list of nine facilities in the town, both public and private, that could be vaccine locations. She said the most ideal spot for vaccinations in East Gwillimbury would be East Gwillimbury Sports Complex in Sharon, due to its location close to the centre of town and its ample space.

York Region starting to roll out various location for vaccines across the region. Dr. Karim Kurji said Feb. 25 the over 80 age group will be able to book vaccine appointments through an existing online system -- at york.ca/covid19vaccine -- as of March 1.

Each hospital will have a different booking system and, in the beginning, it will only be Mackenzie Health through the Cortellucci Hospital in Vaughan and Southlake Hospital at the Ray Twinney Centre in Newmarket.

There aren’t enough vaccines available yet to open up additional public health clinics until March 15, at which point more of the vaccine is expected and a variety of sites are designated to distribute, including Richmond Green in Richmond Hill, Maple Community Centre, Aaniin Community Centre in Markham, the Georgina Ice Palace and Canada’s Wonderland.

There are also plans in the works for clinics at the Trisan Centre in Schomberg and SoccerCity in Stouffville.

If all goes well, Kurji said, all 80-year-olds -- almost 45,000 residents -- should be able to get the vaccine within five weeks.

When this age group is vaccinated, the region will move in five-year time intervals beginning with those 75 to 80.

“We would have to lean on family and friends who can access technology to assist in the booking of these appointments, and if somebody brings an over-80 individual to the clinic, they should not expect to be immunized as well because the vaccines are in short supply and need to prioritize those most at risk of dying,” Kurji said.

Hackson emphasized the town’s large geographic area, a population of 35,000, a lack of public transit and it’s older-than-average population as reasons the town should get a vaccine site. Dr. Kurji said as vaccine supplies increase heading toward summer, there is no reason the region can’t expand the vaccine distribution operation.

Castagna is less than enthused about the prospect of leaving the municipality to get her vaccine. She said she doesn’t want to have to compete with residents of Newmarket and Georgina to get a vaccine. “It’s like the Hunger Games or standing in line at the start of Boxing Day,” she said. “All of us are competing online to reserve a spot at Ray Twinney.”

Castagna certainly believes it would be more than possible to set up a clinic in East Gwillimbury.