BARRIE, ONT. -- A Barrie-based long-term care worker is the first person in Simcoe Muskoka to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
On Tuesday morning, a nurse with the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit administered the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID -19 vaccine to Lori Black, a personal support worker caring for seniors at Victoria Village on Ross Street in Barrie.
Black said she volunteered to be immunized to help others.
"I work on different units, so I can expose myself to over 100 residents, family members, coworkers within a week, so this is my way of fighting for them. They are the most vulnerable, and this is my way to help protect them, myself, as well as everybody else in my workplace as well as in the community," she said.
The 46-year-old PSW is part of a priority group to be immunized in the first phase of Simcoe Muskoka's historic roll out at the new COVID-19 Immunization Clinic.
Immunization program manager Deanna Thompson said the site would eventually have 15 nurses ready to give the vaccine every day. "They will immunize about 200 to 400 a day when they are up and running."
"It really is the light at the end of a very long tunnel. Knowing we can actually bring vaccines to the region starting today is really exciting," said Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre president and CEO Janice Skot.
Dr. Charles Gardner, Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit chief medical officer of health, said the vaccine's arrival in Simcoe Muskoka is "the beginning of the solution."
"This is a critical step for us to be able to bring this pandemic under control," Gardner added.
The vaccine will be available to the general public sometime later in 2021.
"It's going to be a process that will take us months to get through to the very end, such that everybody has had an opportunity to be vaccinated, and it will greatly expand as a campaign over time," Gardner concluded.
Health officials expect it to take another six to nine months to immunize all Ontarians who opt to get vaccinated.
With files from CTV's Rob Cooper
