10/14/2020
Itβs Flu Shot Time!
Please direct any specific flu shot questions to our nurses. Thank you for your patience as we manage large-scale vaccination in different ways this year to ensure COVID-19 safety protocols. Weβre excited about our nursing portable, and eagerly anticipate that someday in the not-too-distant future we will use it to offer our patients vaccination against COVID-19!
As of Tuesday, October 13, 2020, patients can call the front desk at 905-279-1700 to book their flu shot. Multiple members of the same family can be booked at the same time. You will be assigned a window of time on a specific date in which to arrive for your flu shot. Please be on time to allow for safe physical distancing and patient flow through the flu clinic. Flu shot appointment windows are available beginning October 26, 2020. We are starting flu shot vaccination a bit later than usual this year because we have a new 2 room heated nursing portable arriving soon at the far end of our parking lot to facilitate short outdoor line-ups and COVID-19 safe protocols for administering the flu vaccine. Please be aware that older seniors and anyone using a mobility aid will be brought to the front of the line at the discretion of our nursing staff.
Please donβt worry about getting your flu shot a little later in the fall this year. We expect that most patients will be vaccinated by November/December. There is currently an extremely low incidence of influenza in the community, and Peel Public Health is predicting that influenza will peak later than usual in our communities this year. Because protective immunity peaks 28 days after vaccination and starts to wane in the several months after that, there is actually value in receiving your flu shot a little later this year. We also hope and anticipate that flu season may not be as bad as in some other years due to mask use in public, social and physical distancing, and better hand hygiene to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Please be aware that doctorsβ offices order and receive their flu vaccine doses directly from Public Health. While we would ideally like to give every adult over age 65 the recommended high-dose trivalent (3 strain) flu shot, if we do not have it when you arrive for your appointment the recommendation from Public Health is that you receive the standard quadrivalent (4 strain) flu shot and become vaccinated against the flu, either way, to be protected for fall/winter 2020/2021.
Please direct any specific flu shot questions to our nurses. Thank you for your patience as we manage large-scale vaccination in different ways this year to ensure COVID-19 safety protocols. Weβre excited about our nursing portable, and eagerly anticipate that someday in the not-too-distant future we will use it to offer our patients vaccination against COVID-19!
