THUNDER BAY — Shutting the doors on the COVID-19 and flu vaccine clinic at the Coliseum building, the Thunder Bay District Health Unit has wrapped up for the 2023/24 cold and flu season.
The pop-up clinic launched in early October and was made available for appointment and walk-in doses of the latest COVID-19 vaccine as well as this year's flu shot.
Laura Dennis, the manager of the vaccine-preventable disease program at the health unit, said the clinic had a strong start and slowly declined as the season progressed.
"Well, I would say the demand really, really peaked for the high-risk groups at the end of October. We saw the highest numbers in our clinic at the Coliseum. We had a really good fall with a lot of people coming out to our clinic on average - around 300 people per day that we were open. That has definitely declined, kind of mid-December, a slow, steady decline."
Dennis estimated that approximately 50 clients were expected on the clinic's last day earlier this week at the CLE.
Over the course of the 28 clinics that were offered this year by the health unit, Dennis said over 10,000 clients were given COVID-19 vaccines, and many also received flu shots at the same time.
"We have noticed, looking at the trends, about 70 per cent of people coming into our clinics are also receiving a flu vaccine."
She noted the health unit might not open a mass immunization clinic for the next flu season.
"We're going to ensure that there's adequate access in our community for COVID-19 and flu shots based on ministry recommendations," Dennis said.
"So if we're seeing a number of pharmacies participating, our health unit clinics may focus more on any gaps in access. Depending on the recommendations, we may not be opening a mass immunization clinic, but we may depending on what we're seeing for demand and what the recommendations are."
Since March 2021, TBDHU has doled out 227,046 COVID-19 vaccines at the CLE clinic alone.
The health unit is going to shift its focus going forward for the time being - on getting students caught up with routine immunizations.
"That is part of our recovery, you might say. We use the term recovery to describe all of the work that was put aside or that we didn't do as much of our regular work throughout the pandemic," Dennis said.
"We are going to be focusing on getting routine immunizations caught up for all school-age children this year, and a lot of the staff working at these clinics will be reassigned to that work now."
Dennis stressed that COVID-19 vaccines and flu shots will still be available through the health unit with select appointment times available.
