Bradford Mayor Rob Keffer issued a statement today on the latest vaccination efforts locally.
The full statement follows:
Last week the province announced that those 50 years of age and older living in “hot spot” communities in Ontario, including the L3Z postal code area of BWG, are now eligible for vaccination. Local health and community partners, including the Town of BWG and the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, collaborated to quickly put in place a plan for special “hot spot” clinics and appointments, which are rolling out over the next days and weeks in addition to the regularly scheduled clinics.
Today, approximately 550 residents of BWG were vaccinated in the first of the series of “hot spot” vaccination clinics aimed at protecting the community against ongoing high rates of COVID-19 transmission in this area. A total of 1,800 extra appointments were made available in Bradford on Thursday through Sunday, on top of those that were done through the provincial system, and all of them are now completely booked up.
We hit some snags along the way, including a swift pivot when it turned out we had to move one clinic from the high school to the Bob Fallis arena to accommodate the number of people, but Town and SMDHU staff responded as quickly as possible to make the necessary changes and to keep the public informed. Town staff from a variety of departments were redeployed to provide support by phone, and were immediately trained and ready to help.
I want to give my thanks and kudos to everyone at the Town and SMDHU involved in making this happen, as well as to the many people and community groups who helped by sharing information about our clinics. Your word-of-mouth is our most powerful way of reaching people on a broad scale, and we couldn’t have made this happen in such a short time without your support.
Following the success of these clinics, and the obvious demand for vaccines in our community, we hope to have more information for you soon on future clinic dates. Please continue to follow the Town on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, or visit our website for updates.
Best,
Rob Keffer
