If you're looking to receive the COVID vaccine or a flu shot this fall, some clinics across Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health's catchment area are giving you the opportunity to get both in one visit.
It comes as plans to expand vaccine clinics throughout Guelph and Wellington County have been confirmed, and set to take effect this fall.
"It's easier on our resources, and it's easier on everyone else," Rita Isley, the director of community health and chief nursing officer with Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, told GuelphToday.
"You only have to go once, so it's a little bit easier from that perspective."
But is it safe to get both in the same visit? Isley says medically, it is, but advises people to be cautious.
"The reason why it's not always recommended to administer vaccines at the same time is that in the event you have an adverse reaction, you don't know which vaccine to attribute it to," she said.
"For people that have had adverse reactions to some vaccines, it might not be in their best interest, and they would speak with whomever is administering the vaccine to determine if they should spread them out."
The bivalent COVID-19 vaccine – which would target both the original strain and the Omicron subvariant BA.1 – has not been approved in Canada yet.
Health Canada is reviewing boosters from both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.
Isley believes we could see the dosage as early as next month, though they don't have definite timelines from the provincial and federal government at this point.
But when it does get approved, Isley anticipates once fall starts rolling, it will go very fast and vaccines will be in our hands fairly quickly.
"Saying that, we also know that we're not going to have enough vaccines initially to do everyone that wants that vaccine all on the same day, at the very beginning of that rollout," she said.
"We're waiting on some direction from the province on how we'll allocate the bivalent vaccine, to make sure that everyone who wants it will eventually have access to it."
The clinic at Stone Road Mall in Guelph will continue to ramp up, which they'll consider their mass clinic.
They're also working on securing a location to open up a mass clinic in Wellington County for the fall, and will be opening up smaller pop-up clinics in smaller, more remote communities, or communities where people have a tougher time accessing clinics.
Further details have not been finalized yet on where other additional clinics will be held.
"We're going to use a whole plethora of options, to make sure that people have access to the vaccine," Isley said.
At the moment though, she said active clinics are seeing consistent numbers, to the tune of a couple hundred people per week.
"We're not seeing people getting their first or second doses as much, but we are seeing people coming in to get their boosters as the eligibility continues to expand," she said.
As of Wednesday at 8:30 a.m., the COVID-19 vaccine dashboard said 61.8 per cent of eligible residents have gotten at least a third dose.
Of the 6,395 vaccine doses administered in the month of August, 4,755 were fourth doses.
One number they want to increase is vaccinations among the youngest population.
About four per cent of those aged six months to five years have gotten their first dose.
Isley said while they want to see the number go up, she does note many doctor's offices are in the process of ramping up their vaccinations for that population.
She is encouraging residents to get both shots, noting we are bracing for a higher than normal fall flu season. On top of that, circulation of COVID is expected going into the cooler, fall months.
