NDP’s Hatfield tells Ford to speed up vaccines to protect Windsor’s long-term care residents

WINDSOR-ESSEX – NDP MPP Percy Hatfield (Windsor—Tecumseh) is calling on the Ford government to speed up the COVID-19 vaccination program in Windsor-Essex as news of a three-week stall looms.

According to Windsor Regional Hospital’s CEO, unless vaccine allotments increase for the region, Windsor-Essex won't have enough supply to vaccinate any additional people between Jan. 24 and mid-February and will only have enough to give second doses.

“Windsor-Essex is among the hardest hit during the second wave of this pandemic, and now there’s reports that our hospital will not have enough vaccines to maintain the rate at which we are inoculating people. That is unacceptable,” said Hatfield.

With outbreaks in nearly half of Windsor’s long-term care facilities, hospitals at capacity, and an increasing number of deaths related to the virus that have forced the use of a temporary morgue, there is a urgent need for the Ford government to recognize the crisis in Windsor-Essex and to get more vaccines to the region.

“We need this government to accelerate vaccinations urgently, and publicly release the full vaccination schedule and detailed plan. It’s disheartening and frustrating to know that tens of thousands of life-saving vaccine doses have been sitting in freezers. Vaccine supplies have been available in Ontario for more than three weeks, yet instead of an urgent mobilization to get the vaccine into the arms of people who need it most, we’re seeing the Ford government struggle to figure out how to move this life-saving vaccine out,” said Hatfield.