News

The Haldimand-Norfolk Health unit and its partners are working diligently to ensure that every resident who wishes to receive the vaccine has the chance to do so, once they become eligible.

Currently, the online vaccine appointment booking tool is down, and staff are working to get it back up and running. Residents are asked to be patient and not leave multiple messages on the vaccine hotline regarding appointments – your call WILL be returned.

Staff are continuing to return resident phone calls and book appointments for eligible individuals. The vaccine line is receiving up to 1000 calls per day, and callbacks are being completed as quickly as possible.

As soon as the online booking tool is live, the community will be notified. In the meantime, the following options are available for residents in Phase 2 currently eligible to receive a vaccine:

1. Residents 65 and above, and residents with high-risk health conditions are currently eligible to register for a vaccine appointment. This group is being asked to wait until the online booking system is live to book an appointment or leave one message only with the Vaccine Hotline (519-427-5903).

2. Residents 60-64 years of age are encouraged to add their names to a wait-list for potential end-of-day appointments (due to cancellations, no-shows, etc). Lists of individuals aged 65+ will be exhausted first. Eligible individuals will only be contacted if there are available doses at end of the day at the various clinic locations. The waitlist signup form is available at hnhu.org/vaccinewaitlist.

3. Residents 55 and above are currently eligible to register for the AstraZeneca vaccine at local pharmacies. For more information, please visit https://covid-19.ontario.ca/vaccine-locations.

Despite the temporary unavailability of the online booking tool, the vaccination program continues to move forward.

To date, 22, 797 vaccines have been administered to residents and additional clinics have been scheduled to meet the demand for appointments.

The HNHU has also seen nearly 100% attendance at clinics; the waitlist system for cancelled appointments/end-of-day doses is helping fill the spots and utilize all available vaccines.

The vaccine waitlist has been an integral part of the HNHU’s delivery of the COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine waitlist is part of a larger contingency strategy that allows the HNHU to ensure that all available doses are administered in the timeframe available.

The HNHU is proud to have an exceptionally low level of wastage (0.1%) and to have never wasted a single dose due to the inability to identify eligible candidates. The small number of wasted doses has been due to insufficient quantities in a small number of vaccine vials.

For more information on vaccine rollout in Haldimand and Norfolk, vaccine eligibility details, visit HNHU.org/covax.