By Cecilia Nasmith

The COVID-19 picture at Northumberland County's municipal level is improving, county council heard at its May meeting.

At the Golden Plough Lodge, for example, Administrator Bill Detlor said things look pretty good just now.

“Things are changing almost on a daily basis in terms of police and procedure regarding COVID, but we are in a good place at this time,” Detlor said.

“We are not in outbreak status. The second round of vaccinations is beginning today. That's for staff – residents are already fully vaccinated. Staff will be, today or tomorrow.”

Northumberland Paramedics have gone above and beyond in recent weeks, expanding their COVID response in both scope and geographic area.

Chief Paramedic Susan Brown described two recent requests for assistance, one of which came from the Ministry of Health about four weeks ago in response to the overwhelming numbers of patients in the Toronto area requiring an unmanageable number of ICU beds in hospitals.

“They were asking for assistance in moving some of the lower-priority COVID-19 patients to other hospitals to the east, west and north,” Brown said.

“We can submit the claims at 100% refunding through the province.”

On the home front, she added, “we were asked to assist with the vaccination of homebound patients. Once again, we entered into an agreement with the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit where they would 100% pay the funding for paramedics to go out and provide COVID-19 immunization in the home for people with accessibility or mobility issues.

“Again, it was no cost to us. We submitted our rates to HKPR.”

Emergency Planning Manager Ken Stubbings was asked by Deputy Warden Mandy Martin to explain the county's immunization policy.

“It's not mandatory for staff to get a vaccine – that's their legal right – but it's about implementing a proactive measure so we are recognizing the fact that getting a vaccination is an additional protective measure, along with wearing a mask and the two-metre distancing and such. So we are promoting it that way, and we are requesting staff to get vaccinated,” Stubbings said.

“We are requesting an outcome of the vaccination process is complied with as well. The purpose of that is solely so we recognize that it's putting people in a hazardous situation if they haven't been vaccinated.

“That protocol really is in alignment with some existing measures in union agreements, such as at the Golden Plough Lodge, where we don't want to put a person who has not been vaccinated in a situation where they would be at high risk of getting COVID-19 from another person. It's an agreement that we are aware an individual has or has not been vaccinated as a protective measure,” Stubbings acknowledged.

“The policy also discusses the concept of workplace vaccination clinics, and we are trying to implement those. In fact, this week the health unit gave acknowledgment that we have approval to conduct workplace vaccination clinics. We are partnering with our member municipalities to facilitate that process.

“The policy recognizes the hierarchy of vaccines as well, and we are trying to vaccinate our employees based on the level of risk first. For example, the Golden Plough Lodge and paramedics who are in the thick of people with potentially high risk, exposing our workers to COVID-19, “ he added.

This is the group he termed “first and foremost”

“Then, going down the line, the list of staff that relates to other areas of front-line work with other people – roads staff, staff at community recycling centres, IT staff, some of our social-services staff.

“Then, going down the list to all, based on risk of exposure to COVID-19.”

Martin said she had requested the presentation in order to put it in a public forum for anyone to see. In other words, she added, “it's a brag.”

Later in the meeting, as council was declaring Paramedic Services Week May 23-29, Councillor Gail Latchford offered her own compliments to Brown for stepping up and tackling the extra work they have taken on.

The theme for this year's Paramedic Services Week is Paramedic as Educator – Citizen Ready, and it aims to recognize the contributions of paramedics across Canada, as well as the 120 full- and part-time paramedics who work in Northumberland County's six bases.