狐狸视频

U of T faculty, staff and students help run pop-up vaccination clinics in COVID-19 hot spots

Left to right: Susannah Merritt, Noah Schonewille, Upasana Saha (middle, rear), Cass Mackey and Erin Bearss at the Albion Arena

Left to right: Susannah Merritt, Noah Schonewille, Upasana Saha (middle, rear), Cass Mackey and Erin Bearss at the Albion Arena (photo courtesy of Erin Bearss)

Working out of community centres and hockey arenas, 狐狸视频 faculty, staff and students are helping run pop-up vaccination clinics in Toronto鈥檚 COVID-19 hot spots.

Erin Bearss, a physician at Sinai Health and an assistant professor in U of T鈥檚 department of family and community medicine in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, is part of the team administering vaccines inside the rink at Albion Arena in Toronto鈥檚 Rexdale neighbourhood.

Roughly 2,300 people a day, on average have received their first dose of vaccine at the clinic, which first opened last week.

鈥淓veryone recognizes how important the vaccine campaign is for getting our lives back on track,鈥 said Bearss, who is an ER and family doctor at Mount Sinai Hospital. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a case of all hands on deck.鈥

U of T is also hosting mass vaccination sites at its St. George and Mississauga campuses. They operate in collaboration with health-care partners and follow Ontario鈥檚 priority vaccine schedule and ethical guidelines.

The Albion Arena pop-up clinic is similarly being operated by U of T and Sinai Health under the umbrella of the University Health Network. 鈥淪inai, being a relatively small group, we couldn鈥檛 have done it without the support of U of T,鈥 Bearss said.

The temporary clinic, on Albion Road just west of Kipling Avenue, is at the heart of one of Toronto鈥檚 harder hit communities, with 950 cases per 100,000 people 鈥 three times the case rate of the Annex neighbourhood, . Rexdale borders West Humber-Clairville, with more than 1,300 cases per 100,000.

 

Vaccine Clinic

(photo courtesy of Erin Bearss)

Pascal Lumbala, a COVID-19 community response manager in Rexdale, spoke of the urgency to vaccinate people in the neighbourhood in a.

鈥淭he majority of the community 鈥 you have essential workers, immigrants, low incomes, people living in buildings with multi-generational houses,鈥 he said, noting that all are factors that put residents at higher risk.

U of T community members were also on hand at temporary clinics at the Habitant Arena, near Weston Road and Finch Avenue, and the Oakdale Community Centre, in the area of Jane Street and Finch Avenue.

Thomas Brown, an associate professor in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, has been arriving at the Oakdale site early in the morning, about three hours before it opens, to prepare individual doses from vials of vaccine 鈥 a 20-step process that requires the utmost care and precision.

Operating a pop-up clinic without appointments presents staff with unique challenges, Brown said.

鈥淥nce we start putting [the vaccine] into the syringe, it鈥檚 only good for six hours, so we can鈥檛 just make a whole bunch,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e have to anticipate how much we're going to use.鈥

When the line outside the clinic appeared to be thinning, managers put out a call through , a volunteer group that鈥檚 working with the City of Toronto to connect residents to available vaccine appointments, to ensure that every dose found an arm.

Pharmacy students who have just completed their final exams are also working at the clinics.

鈥淚 think we all just want this to be over,鈥 said Brown, 鈥渁nd we all want people to stop getting into hospitals. That鈥檚 why we鈥檙e health-care providers.鈥

Similarly, Lynn Wilson, professor and vice-dean of clinical and faculty affairs at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, said assisting with vaccination efforts in vulnerable communities is part of health professionals鈥 responsibility to address community needs.

鈥淩ight now, getting vaccines to communities at risk is an enormous priority and we would like to be part of the solution,鈥 she said.

 

 

 

UTC