City of Ottawa considering closing some vaccination clinics, testing centres

OTTAWA -

As COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations remain at record lows and the rate of vaccinations starts to slow down at some city facilities, city staff say an eventual wind down of testing and vaccination services is being considered.

General Manager of Emergency and Protective Services, Anthony Di Monte, told reporters Wednesday that Ottawa might now be over capacity when it comes to vaccine clinics and the eventual closures of some mass vaccination clinics could be coming soon.

"What we're actually observing, and we knew this day would come, with all our sites open now and the volume of people versus our capacity, the balance is starting to shift," Di Monte said. "We're trying balance to not diminish capacity so that people have easy access to the site, but we are starting to see at some sites that there are certain hours that are not as busy."

Di Monte added that he'd rather have a few days per week that aren't very busy than close sites down and create more barriers to vaccination, but he admitted that vaccine clinics can't stay empty forever.

"This is a normal evolution of the operation," he said. "There's just not as many people left to do. So, 11 (community clinics), maybe that's over capacity and we want to start titrating that and turning some of that down. We're not going to have staff standing there in those operations if we don't have enough people to vaccinate. We'll return those staff back to their core operations."

Testing demand slowing but will be needed this fall

Di Monte also struck a similar stance when it comes to COVID-19 assessment centres, saying as demand decreases some sites may shut down and staff will return to their normal duties.

Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Brent Moloughney, however, stressed that testing for COVID-19 will remain a key tool for handling the pandemic, especially in the fall as schools reopen and more activities move indoors.

"Testing will continue to have an important role. What we saw last fall was more people started to have symptoms as things opened up and it's quite possible that we're going to have that with us this fall," he said. "The testing taskforce are planning to make sure there will still be testing through assessment centres and we're currently piloting take-home testing day camps and we're looking to be able to expand that to school settings in the fall."

Some testing sites have already scaled back their hours or closed entirely in recent weeks as demand has declined.

Moloughney also said he expects there will still be a need for screening against COVID-19 as people return to workplaces, venues, and schools.

Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore, said Tuesday that he expects cases to rise in September. Moloughney said Ottawa Public Health is monitoring the situation closely.

"While we are making significant progress, we need to stay ahead of the virus as we head into the fall," he said. "We know the delta variant is more transmissible and is giving rise to resurgences in other countries, despite high levels of immunization. Ottawa Public Health will keep an eye on hospitalizations as a key measure on whether the virus is reaching more vulnerable populations."

Last September, cases in Ottawa rose sharply and then declined in October following a clampdown by the provincial government; however, this was before widespread vaccination was available. Still, Moloughney notes there are approximately 300,000 people in Ottawa who have yet to receive a vaccine. A sizeable number are children under 12, who are ineligible for immunization. Population estimates suggest there are roughly 130,000 people in Ottawa under the age of 12.

"The pandemic isn't over. COVID-19 has shown itself over the last year and a half to take advantage of opportunities that are presented to it," he said. "That's why we're cautious in looking forward, to monitor what happens when we reopen because 300,000 people who haven't been vaccinated is a lot of people for COVID to work with."

Moloughney and other staff noted that anyone who still needs a first dose can now walk in to any city-run clinic without an appointment.