Every Ottawa resident could receive first dose of COVID-19 vaccine by summer, Ottawa Hospital CEO says

Norma O’Connor was one of the first residents in Ottawa’s general population to receive a COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, March 5. (Colton Praill/CTV News Ottawa)

OTTAWA — On the one-year anniversary of COVID-19 being declared a global pandemic, the head of the Ottawa Hospital is providing reason for optimism to all Ottawa residents.

"For a first dose, summer is very reasonable," Cameron Love, president and CEO of the Ottawa Hospital said Thursday on when all residents could expect to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

The city of Ottawa started vaccinating the general public last week. On March 5, residents over the age of 80 in seven high-risk neighbourhoods began receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Starting March 12, all residents over the age of 90 can receive the COVID-19 vaccine at an Ottawa mass vaccination clinic.

Ottawa's COVID-19 vaccine rollout is being led by medical officer of health Dr. Vera Etches and Ottawa's general manager of emergency and protective services Anthony Di Monte.

"As a community with Tony and Dr. Etches plan, there's a plan there to do sort of 10 to 15,000 (vaccinations) a day," said Love during an interview on Newstalk 580 CFRA's The Morning Rush with Bill Carroll.

"If the doses continue to climb through April and we get the volume of doses that are planned through April and May – that's 300,000 a month. With a million people in Ottawa, you can see we can get everyone in Ottawa with a first dose by summer."

As of March 8, Ottawa had received 80,540 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the Moderna vaccine. A total of 69,187 doses had been administered.

"The only point in time where we've started to get a glimpse of hope was Dec. 15, when we started the vaccinations and I think that is the piece that is going to get us through it," said Love, reflecting on the past year at the Ottawa Hospital during a pandemic.

"But we still have three, four, five, six months to work through here."

The first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived in Ottawa on Dec. 14. The first doses were administered at the Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus on Dec. 15.

VACCINATING STAFF AT THE OTTAWA HOSPITAL

The Ottawa Hospital says 80 per cent of the 11,500 patient-facing staff at its facilities have received the COVID-19 vaccine.

Love told Newstallk 580 CFRA's Ottawa Now with Kristy Cameron on Wednesday that as of this week, all patient-facing staff that wanted the COVID-19 vaccine had received the vaccine.

There is a total of 16,000 staff, nurses and physicians employed at the Ottawa Hospital.

Love says the remaining staff members working at home and not dealing with the public on a daily basis will be vaccinated at a later date as COVID-19 vaccinations extend to the general public.