Peterborough has received its first supply of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, Peterborough Public Health announced on Monday afternoon (January 25).
The 500-dose supply was delivered to Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) on Monday morning.
Residents of local long-term care homes will begin receiving vaccinations on Tuesday, states the health unit, which will be working with PRHC to support the administration of the vaccine.
The Ontario government has made vaccinations of residents of long-term care homes and high-risk retirement homes the top priority for the first phase of the province’s vaccination distribution plan.
The health unit says that, since there are no retirement homes in Peterborough that have been deemed high risk, long-term care home will be the first to receive the vaccine.
Like the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the Moderna vaccine is a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine. Unlike traditional vaccines, mRNA vaccines do not contain a weakened or dead version of the virus.
Instead, they use mRNA to prompt cells in the body to produce a harmless piece of the same protein that is found on the surface of the virus causing COVID-19. The body develops antibodies to that harmless protein, so it can mount an effective immune response if a person is infected with the actual virus.
For maximum efficacy, the Moderna vaccine requires two shots administered 28 days apart. Based on evidence from clinical trials, the vaccine is 94.1 per cent effective at preventing COVID-19.
