Hamilton shuts down facilities and opens new vaccine clinic to fight Omicron

Thestar.com
December 17, 2021

City facilities and programs are closing as 100 staff are urgently redeployed to help with COVID vaccination efforts to curb the rapid spread of Omicron.

A temporary vaccination clinic will open Friday at the West 5th Campus of St. Joseph’s Healthcare that is anticipated to give out 4,000 doses over five days.

Extra appointments will also be added to existing clinics at the Centre on Barton, the Mountain Vaccine Clinic at CF Lime Ridge and Winterberry Family Medicine as well as the West End Clinic for health care workers.

In addition, pharmacies have taken on a significant amount of the load by administering about 2,000 doses a day, which is about half or more of the vaccines given out over the last three days.

Hamilton has seen a spike in demand for boosters as the province issued urgent pleas this week for all eligible to get third doses immediately, as Omicron has spread at what Premier Doug Ford called an “alarming rate.”

Doses per day went from 2,500 or less in Hamilton to nearly 4,000 on Monday when those age 50-plus became eligible. The number of shots increased again to 4,711 on Wednesday.

“Hamilton and all of Ontario face an anticipated surge of Omicron cases in the coming days and weeks,” medical officer of health Dr. Elizabeth Richardson said in a statement Thursday. “In response to this urgent situation, city staff and health-care practitioners from across our community are stepping up to get more COVID-19 doses in arms.”

The city reported 108 new COVID cases Thursday. The daily average increase was up to 62 on Tuesday compared to 25 on Dec. 1.

Hamilton was among the majority of the province’s public health units seeing a rise in cases as the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table warned Omicron infections double every two to four days.

Each case of Omicron is infecting 6.1 times more individuals than Delta, shows the table’s latest modelling released Thursday.

The severity of Omicron is unclear, but early Danish data suggests it’s the same as previous strains.

The science table cautions that information from South Africa, suggesting Omicron is about 25 per cent less severe, cannot be extrapolated to countries like Canada due to differences in population age and degree of immunity. The modelling also notes hospitalizations, occupancy in intensive care and deaths are rising in South Africa.

“Increasing vaccination is not enough to slow this wave,” concludes the science table. “Circuit breakers with strong additional public health measures -- at least 50 per cent fewer contacts -- and strong booster campaigns -- 250,000 per day -- could blunt the Omicron wave.”

The premier has said that Ontario is urgently ramping up the vaccine rollout to 200,000 to 300,000 doses a day. However, the only additional public health measures added was capping large venues with crowds of 1,000 or more to 50 per cent capacity starting Saturday.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath called on Ford Thursday to heed the science table’s advice and urgently implement measures that would reduce contacts.

“The newest science table projections are scary for us all,” said Horwath, MPP for Hamilton Centre. “We do not have time to waste.”

The science table also recommends: “High-quality masks, physical distancing indoors, improved ventilation and increased access to rapid testing.”

The province launched a holiday testing blitz Wednesday, handing out rapid antigen tests in high traffic areas such as malls, shopping centres, Christmas markets, transit hubs and some LCBOs.

A stop at Hamilton’s Dundurn Castle on Thursday saw the full supply of tests gone within minutes.

Richardson also anticipates vaccine appointments will fill fast, despite the increased capacity.

“Vaccinating 320,000 community members is going to be an uphill battle based on strained heath-care human resources,” she said. “As we continue to scale up, we ask community members for patience during this time of significant demand for COVID-19 vaccine booster doses.”

Public health stressed new appointments will be added daily so advised residents to keep checking the local booking system -- Hamilton does not use the provincial portal.

Added local public health restrictions have also been hinted at in a tweet Thursday by Ward 1 councillor Maureen Wilson.

She tweeted that Richardson met with health system partners Wednesday to expand booster shot capacity and “increase local (public health) restrictions.”

To aid with the expanded vaccine rollout, roughly 100 city staff are being redeployed from Dec. 18 to Jan. 10, resulting in the following closures:

• Recreation and community centres: Hill Park, Winona, Sir Winston Churchill, Dundas Lions Memorial, Ancaster Rotary, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Ryerson and Jimmy Thompson Memorial Pool;
• Rosedale and Carlisle arenas;
• Seniors’ clubs Sackville Hill Seniors Recreation Centre, Ancaster Seniors Achievement Centre, Flamborough Seniors Centre, Dundas Senior Citizen’s Club, Seniors’ Centre Without Walls programming;
• All museums except for the Dundurn National Historic Site.

In addition, the city is suspending all return-to-the-workplace efforts and said it will come up with a new plan in 2022.