A ninety-three year old resident of Maple View Long-Term Care Residence in Owen Sound is the first Grey County resident to receive the COVID-19 vaccination. Eleonore Kueber was given the first dose of the Pfizer BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine this morning, January 15th (2021) by Public Health Nurse Lisa Lambkin.
As that vaccine was being given, the first vaccine in Bruce County was also being 
administered to Nora Foster, a seventy-one year old resident at Golden Dawn Senior Citizen Home in Lion’s Head. Residents, staff and essential caregivers received the vaccine. As well as Golden Dawn and Maple View, some vaccine was also administered at Georgian Heights Long-Term Care Centre in Owen Sound.
The Grey Bruce Health Unit took delivery of the first of two small shipments of the vaccine allocated to the Grey Bruce today and began vaccinations to residents in Long-Term Care homes across the region. The vaccine plan for Grey and Bruce will ensure those most at risk are first in line to get the vaccine.
A second shipment of vaccine will be arriving the week of January 25, 2021. The quantity of each shipment is small, with the first shipment 200 doses, and the second shipment will contain approximately 800 doses of vaccine.
The order by which people will receive the vaccine is based on the Ministry of Health COVID-19 vaccine prioritization plan. As more vaccine arrives in Grey Bruce, the vaccine will continue to be delivered based on the provincial plan.
The rollout of vaccine to subsequent priority lists and to the general public will depend on vaccine availability. Dates, times and locations will be coordinated with relevant stakeholders. According to the Provincial plan, the process will take several months. The public will be advised through all media channels when the vaccine is more generally available and the process being used for community immunization clinics. Please do not call the Health Unit to ask when you will receive your vaccine.
“This is the first as we launch an effort to vaccinate the most amount of people in the shortest amount of time,” says Grey Bruce’s Top Doctor, Dr. Ian Arra. “The vaccine is the key to ending this pandemic both locally and globally. It will take time, but this is the first step on that journey back to a sense of normalcy again.”
