Community Response and Stabilization Team Providing Booster Shots
The COVID-19 vaccination program in Ontario is expanding booster shot eligibility.
In Essex County, the Community Response and Stabilization Team (CRST), a collaboration between Erie Shores HealthCare and Essex-Windsor EMS, will administer booster shots to the following groups of people at least six months after their second dose:
- Age 70+ (birth year 1951);
- Healthcare workers and designated essential caregivers in congregate settings;
- Ontarians who had two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine; and
- First Nations, Inuit and Métis people and non-Indigenous members of their households.
Beginning on Monday, November 8, 2021, the CRST will provide booster doses to eligible persons at weekly pop-up immunization clinics in Leamington and West Windsor.
There will be no appointments required.
The clinics will take place at the following locations and times:
- Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Municipality of Leamington Town Hall, 111 Erie St. N., Leamington
- Tuesday: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Windsor-Essex Community Health Centre – Sandwich Location, 3325 College Ave., West Windsor
The clinics will be open to anybody aged 12 years and older for the first and second doses; however, the third dose will be available exclusively to those who meet the above-mentioned qualifying conditions.
"This is exceptional news for Windsor-Essex County. The Community Response and Stabilization Team (CRST) was pleased to help when called upon by WECHU to provide this extended outreach and access to vaccines within our high priority communities. We know that third-dose booster shots are vital to maintaining safety and minimizing burden for some of our most vulnerable, including healthcare workers,” said Kristin Kennedy, President and CEO of Erie Shores HealthCare. "First and second doses and outbreak testing also remain the key focus of the Community Response and Stabilization Team."
“We are proud to be part of this team delivering COVID-19 vaccines in communities where they are needed when they are needed. Third doses are another weapon that will help us beat back this virus,” said Essex-Windsor EMS Chief Bruce Krauter.
Third doses of COVID-19 vaccine will also be available via area pharmacies and health care professionals, as well as by appointment at the Mass Vaccination Centre in Windsor's Devonshire Mall. Appointments for the Mass Vaccination Centre can be made by visiting WEVax.ca.
About the Community Response and Stabilization Team (CRST)
The Community Response and Stabilization Team (CRST) is a partnership between Erie Shores HealthCare and Essex-Windsor EMS. It was formed in the summer of 2020 after a large number of breakouts in Windsor-Essex County. The team has administered over 20,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine at pop-up clinics across the region, tested 20,000 people for COVID-19, and completed 3,000 health assessments to determine if a higher level of care within a hospital setting was needed.