March 22, 2021| March 22
re: COVID-19 vaccines

Dear Ongwanada family members:

I am reaching out to provide you with information on COVID-19 vaccination for our supported individuals.

As you may be aware, the vaccine roll-out priority is dictated mainly by the Province.  The Province determined that staff in broader health care settings be among the first group to receive a vaccine.  To that end, our highest, very high, and high priority staff – criteria for which were pre-determined – have had access to the vaccine for two weeks, with many staff having received their first dose.  However, in addition, thanks to the flexibility exhibited by our partners at Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Public Health, we have managed to have 53 of our most vulnerable supported individuals vaccinated to date.

We have also been working very closely with KFLA Public Health to establish a vaccine clinic at our Resource Centre on Portsmouth Ave., specifically aimed at people supported through the developmental services sector.  We aim to have this clinic up-and-running by Thursday, March 25, 2021.

The clinic will be open to individuals supported through any KFLA-based developmental service agency.  Our initial focus will be on vaccinating people living in congregate care settings.  We are working closely with our partner agencies to schedule these vaccines. Thereafter, continuing to work with our partners, we plan to open the clinic up to other supported individuals living in community-based settings, e.g., Supported Independent Living, living with family, etc.

We have received consent for the vaccine from most families who wish their loved ones to be vaccinated. If you have not returned completed consent and wish your loved one to be vaccinated, please do so as soon as possible.

In all of this, I want to acknowledge our Public Health partners’ support, who have been highly receptive and flexible in vaccinating many of our supported individuals and helping set up our vaccine clinic.  I also want to acknowledge the many Ongwanada staff who worked tirelessly to make this happen as quickly and as efficiently as it has.

With the vaccine now rolling out, we all hope this will be the light at the end of the tunnel. Still, it is essential to recognize that we must continue to follow good infection control practices and maintain some of the limitations in activities we have put in place for the foreseeable future.

I thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,

Alastair Lamb

Chief Executive Officer

Ongwanada